1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
|
title: Election-appeals and by-elections expected in Hesse state elections due to severe problems with voting computers
date: 2008-01-27 00:00:00
updated: 2009-04-18 19:12:41
author: presse
tags: update, pressemitteilung
Severe problems and irregularities occurred during Sunday's election for the state government in the German state of Hesse, where NEDAP voting computers were operated.
<!-- TEASER_END -->
In addition to massive obstructions of the election observers in several
communities, a number of incidents have clearly disproved the claims of
Hesse's ministry of the interior about the security and reliability of
the voting computers.
In at least one community the voting computers were stored in the
private homes of political party members over night. This is an
“established practice”, members of the regulating authority confirmed
towards the election observers. All nine voting computers had been
stored privately in this community.
“The storing of voting computers over night at the homes of local
politicians is the nightmare scenario for insider manipulation, even
according to the logic of the Hesse ministry of the interior. This is
something even we couldn't have imagined”, said Dirk Engling speaking
for Chaos Computer Club (CCC).
Election observers of the CCC were left alone for a long time in two
polling stations, before the voting executive arrived. Manipulation of
the election could have been easily accomplished by anyone left alone
with the voting computers.
In at least one polling station the NEDAP technology failed; a voting
computer in Viernheim showed an error message shortly after the startup
a few minutes before 8 o'clock. A normal vote was therefore impossible.
It took over an hour until a replacement computer arrived at the polling
station. During this time many voters were not able to vote and
effectively disenfranchised.
In Obertshausen interested citizens were refused admittance to the
polling station by an employee of the regulating authority and election
observers were even threatened with arrest.
“The election supervisor in Obertshausen obviously hasn't heard anything
of things such as openness and the legally warranted publicity of an
election”, CCC speaker Dirk Engling commented. Some election supervisors
actively tried to prevent an observation of the election in its
operation.
Observations from over 50 interested citizens showed that a large number
of older voters had problems casting their ballot on the computers,
contrary to the claims in the run-up to the election. Many were so
overwhelmed, that election helpers had to assist them with the casting
of their ballot.
The CCC also visited the people in charge of voting in the hessian
communities which had decided against using voting computers after a
testing phase. CCC activists brought biscuits to the election volunteers
in the polling stations during the counting. In the process they got
interesting insights into the reasons for the rejection of the NEDAP
voting computers.
In previous elections, the town of Weiterstadt has used voting
computers. “We were among the first who introduced voting computers. But
after the first election we experienced that the effort in preparing the
election was too large”, Mr. Gerald Eberlein, voting supervisor of
Weiterstadt, said. “I just had the feeling it was insecure”, he said
justifying the move away from the disputed computers.
In Erzhausen the ballots were also casted on paper in the traditional
manner. “We had rented the computers due to the counting and
vote-splitting during our local elections, but the promised saving of
time didn't happen, it just got more expensive. That's why we changed
back to paper”, Dieter Karl, Mayor of Erzhausen, told the CCC. The
advantages promised by the commercial supplier of NEDAP voting computers
simply did not materialise.
The discussion about the practical issues around voting computers shows
that they not save labor, but also mean more costs and time for the
communities, allow unnoticed manipulation of the result and cause major
problems for senior citizens potentially disenfranchising a segment of
the population.
Many violations of procedures were noticed by the election observers,
and the reliability problems of the NEDAP systems make it clear once
more, that the basic problems of voting computers: the inability to
verify the correct operation and transparency of the election. Neither
voters nor election helpers were able to validate the correctness of the
ballot-casting and counting. A subsequent recounting is therefore simply
not possible.
“The observation of the election in Hesse shows that the time has
definitely come to withdraw the voting computers also in Germany”, said
Dirk Engling. “Especially in the light of the tight outcome of the
election in Hesse the unacceptable risks of computer mediated voting
become very clear.”
The CCC would like to thank all election observers for their commitment
to upholding the democratic process!
|
