(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
e-voting, germany



German Court Says E-Voting Was Unconstitutional

from the well-how-about-that dept

It still stuns us that, despite so many problems found with e-voting technologies, that elections officials in the US seem to have no problem continuing to roll them out every election time, it looks like Germany is taking a slightly different perspective. A number of readers have sent in the news that Germany's highest court hasn't just rejected Germany's use of e-voting technologies, but declared their usage in a 2005 election as unconstitutional, due to the unreliable nature of the machines and (more importantly) the fact that the black box nature of the machines made the elections not as transparent as required. That said... it also allowed the results from the election to stand, saying there was no actual evidence of mistakes. Still, perhaps other courts will start to recognize this as well: when you make the details of the election and how the results are counted totally secret, you cannot have a citizenry that believes that the election results were fair or accurate.

7 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

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  1. Mar 5th, 2009 @ 8:06pm
    by Anonymous Coward

    Anonymous Says The Video Ads In The TechDirt RSS Suck.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Mar 5th, 2009 @ 8:50pm
    by Anonymous Coward

    If you don't like the ads, utilize your HOSTS file.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Mar 5th, 2009 @ 9:13pm
    by Anonymous Coward

    I'm confused Mike... You laugh at the lame ass newspapers, and rightfully so, because they don't evolve. Yet you imply that voting machines are unconstitutional and failed. As if they cannot possibly be made transparent and way more useful than paper ballots.

    I happen to believe that ink can be replaced across the board and without exception.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Mar 5th, 2009 @ 10:41pm

    Re:

    As if they cannot possibly be made transparent and way more useful than paper ballots.

    I never said they can't be made open and transparent. I'm all for it if they can be. But the ones in use are NOT. I've been talking to some folks who *are* working on an open and transparent system, and I'm hoping to see their solution get some traction soon.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Mar 6th, 2009 @ 7:18am

    transparentcy

    by Anonymous C

    If you want transparent voting machines make them out of Plexiglas.

    Sorry i'm feeling goofy today.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Mar 6th, 2009 @ 8:45am
    by Anonymous Coward

    Plexiglas. That made me laugh.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Mar 9th, 2009 @ 2:51pm

    Re: transparentcy

    by another mike

    bulletproof Lexan; less susceptible to hacking.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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