Canada: Vancouver voters to get online choice this fall | The Vancouver Observer

If the provincial government approves, Vancouver residents will be able to vote for their municipal representatives online this fall. Vancouver is set to join a small but growing number of Canadian municipalities that allow internet voting, subject to the province’s approval. That approval, according to City Councillor Andrea Reimer, is very likely, as the province is also interested in exploring the potential of internet voting.

[Suzanne] Anton was the only councillor to vote against Reimer’s proposal. She has two major concerns, she says: voters will have no idea what happens to their vote after they cast it, and the city will have no idea of the circumstances under which the vote was cast, meaning voters could be intimidated into voting a particular way or even sell or give their vote to someone else to cast.

Estonia: OSCE recommends that Estonia regulate e-voting in more detail | The Baltic Course

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), an agency of the the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitored the March 6 2011 parliamentary elections in Estonia and published its report on the elections on Monday. The organisation recommends to supplement and specify the legislation governing e-voting. (Read the Report (PDF))

OSCE also recommends Estonia to document more thoroughly different processes involving e-voting and to increase public’s awareness of different nuances of e-voting.

Egypt: Indian Chief Election Commissioner says Egypt can’t trust imported voting machines can’t be trusted | Financial Express

After the revolution in Tahrir Square, Egyptian authorities consulted India’s Election Commission for help in conducting parliamentary polls in the country, only to get cautious advice from chief election commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi. He asked his Egyptian counterpart to not import electronic voting machines (EVMs) from anywhere and get these manufactured domestically. Imported machines, however faultless they are, could be deemed suspect, he warned.

“The validity of any election lies in the fairness of the process, if the machine is imported from somewhere, there is always a possibility that the election will be questioned as being rigged through the machines,” he said, in an interview to FE. The recent campaign against the use of EVMs in Indian elections, Quraishi said, hinges on the chip, “which is manufactured outside the country and is therefore supposed to be suspect”.

South Africa: South Africa Independent Electoral Commission ponders e-votes | ITWeb

As the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) gears up for about 20 million South Africans to make their cross next Wednesday, electronic voting could be in the pipeline as the commission is pondering the seemingly futuristic technology.

More than 23 million people are registered to vote in this year’s municipal elections, and the IEC has printed 70.5 million ballot papers, for the first time printing the sheets in colour. Previously, only national election ballots were printed in colour.

Taiwan: Central Election Commission says Taiwanese need more time to accept, trust e-voting | The China Post

Taiwanese need more time to accept, trust e-voting: CECA Central Election Commission (CEC) official yesterday said it will take more time for Taiwanese people to accept and trust digitization before the government decided to ultimately replace the traditional ballot system with an electric-voting one.

“E-voting is technically feasible but the problem lies on whether or not citizens can put their trust in the system,” said Liu I-chou (劉義周), CEC vice chairman yesterday in Taipei City.

Canada: Online voting: An open invitation to voting fraud | Vancouver Sun

The Internet voting system approved by Vancouver city council promises unprecedented and untraceable voter fraud if it is allowed to proceed. We can only hope the provincial government will have the good sense to reject the city’s plan.

On the face of it, the system would allow voters to cast their ballots from the comfort of their own home. The idea sounds attractive and inevitable. After all, isn’t everything going online? Proponents suggest Internet voting will increase voter participation and will be secure. They are wrong on both counts.

Ireland: Confining e-voting in Ireland to the scrap heap | Connaugh Telegraph

The ill-conceived electronic voting system imposed on us by the former Government has cost us, the taxpayers, €58 million, a loss a bankrupt country can do without. Environment Minister Phil Hogan has decided to pull the plug on e-voting and have a fire sale of the 7,504 machines held in storage at warehouses all over the country.

A tender process is being prepared for international publication, which will detail the amount of memory and the software specifications in the machines in the hope some technology firm may be able to harvest some value from them before they are finally scrapped. The e-voting saga has proved an expensive lesson for this country. The concept was not sought nor wanted by the electorate.

Canada: Vancouver city council approves Internet voting | Vancouver Courier

Council voted 10-1 Tuesday in favour of having online voting available for residents choosing to cast a ballot at advanced polls in the November municipal election. The move, however, will not eliminate voting stations.

“It’s not to narrow choices, but expand them,” said Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer, who led her party’s charge to experiment with online voting this year.

Canada: Vancouver Canada approves Internet voting in advanced civic election polls | Vancouver Sun

Vancouver, one of the first municipalities in Canada to bring in electronic ballot-counting machines, is moving into the next generation of digital democracy: online voting.

On Tuesday city council approved in principle a pilot project to allow online voters to cast ballots in the advance polls for the Nov. 19 civic election.In a 10-1 vote, council said the benefits — increased voter turnout, elimination of lineups and less costly elections — far outweigh some of the potential downsides, including the potential for stolen voter packages, technical difficulties and hacking attacks and difficulty in identifying voter identification.

Australia: E-voting should be open source | ZDnet

A consortium of university computer science departments has warned the Federal Government that all future computerised voting systems should be made open source to ensure that no votes will be miscast.

In a submission (PDF) to the House of Representatives review into the 2010 Federal Election, the Computing Research and Education Association of Australia (CORE) said that it is crucial, if Australia is to move to electronic voting, that the principles of privacy, integrity, transparency and scrutiny of the electoral system be upheld.

Australia: Queensland legislation holds e-voting at bay | Computerworld.au

The Electoral Commission of Queensland will forgo electronic voting for the next state election, sidelining plans to develop a system as a result of legislative restrictions in the state.

The commission allocated $960,000 in funding late last year for research into technology to assist voting for the blind and vision impaired, following similar projects in NSW and Victoria ahead of their respective elections.

Estonia: Estonian Elections Agency Fines E-Voting Company | ERR

After the internet ballot-counting system temporarily crashed on Election Day evening, the National Electoral Committee said it will demand compensation from Helmes, the company responsible for the country’s vote-counting software.

“Quality requirements […] are listed in our contract and if there is a one-time delay of 15 minutes, then there are sanctions for every minute delayed. We need to add it up, but the total sum is around 8,500 euros,” committee Chairman Heiki Sibul told uudised.err.ee.

Estonia: E-Voting Begins in Estonian Election | ERR

More than 20,000 people have already given their votes electronically in e-voting that started on Independence Day and continues until March 2 at 20:00.

The electronic votes are not necessarily the “final answer” – the voter can change the vote simply by re-voting, with the last recorded vote being the one of record.