No other voting system either in use or currently under development uses such a combination, which will enable the new system to avoid the major drawbacks associated with both purely manual and purely electronic voting methods."
The General Election on May 6 was the first UK poll at which overseas observers were invited to attend polling stations and counts.
The team of parliamentarians and officials from 11 Commonwealth countries said the electoral system contained vulnerabilities that made it “corruptible and open to fraud”. --->>>
They say the system could be used in medical research, with hospitals or drug companies performing statistical calculations on shared databases without revealing information about individual patients.
Alternatively, the homomorphic cryptology could improve security in electronic voting. Constituents would encrypt their votes and the returning officer could compute the outcome while maintaining voter privacy.
As part of the transaction, Dominion also acquired an irrevocable, perpetual license for the AutoMark voting terminals used by voters with disabilities, a similar license for the VoteRemote absentee vote-by-mail processing solution, and rights to spare parts, supplies and other resources necessary to support and service these installed systems. In addition, Dominion will acquire a percentage of existing Premier inventory. --->>>
There is a definite need for electoral reform but all choices must be explored says the independent think tank ippr as it suggests Additional Member System (AMS) would make our elections fairer.
In a new report published today, the report's author, Dr Phil McCarvill, a Visiting Research Fellow at ippr, believes the debate on electoral reform so far has been very narrow confined within three specific options - Alternative Vote (AV), Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) and Single Transferable Vote (STV).
In addition, 71 per cent of respondents are in favour of using an electronic ballot marking device (such as a touch screen) instead of a paper ballot. --->>>
Currently, the law dictates that voter registration is voluntary but, once registered, citizens must vote or be subject to hefty fines.
He called the electoral reform bill "an effort to modernize and strengthen our democracy."
The legislation, which the government will send to Congress next week, aims to incorporate 4 million new voters, many of them under 25 years old, who have not registered for recent elections.
In the January 2010 runoff presidential election won by Pinera, 7.2 million Chileans voted, although nearly 8 million were registered. A total of 12 million, out of the country's population of around 16 million, are over 18 years old and eligible to vote.
"The voluntary vote will bring those 4 million potential voters that aren't motivated to vote," Pinera said. ...>>>
The Electoral Commission investigation into the fiasco, to be published within days, is focusing purely on what went wrong on the night - rather than on alternatives to putting a cross on a ballot paper.
Furthermore, the commission accepts that widespread e-voting cannot happen until individual registration is introduced nationwide, which is not due to happen until 2015. --->>>
"This report recognizes that the key to improving First Nations elections systems and citizen-centred accountability lies in fully recognizing First Nations jurisdiction over the design and control of our election codes. We would like to build on the recommendations contained in this report and discuss ways we can support the capacity of our nations to re-build their own systems of governing," said National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo. --->>>
Robin East, who is legally blind, says he has only two options to mark a ballot: have someone help him, or insert his ballot into a sleeve that has braille on it, and hope his mark is correctly aligned.
“Indonesia will be twice the Philippines, more islands, more people,” Cesar Flores, the company’s president, said in an interview. “Now we know we can handle these type of geographies.” --->>>
The Concerned Citizens’ Movement (CCM) of University of the Philippines law professor Harry Roque Jr., one of the groups that earlier opposed the AES before the Supreme Court (SC), admitted that it was “absolutely thrilled to be wrong” about its earlier fear of failure of election due to glitches in the automated system.
The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) and the Financial Executives of the Philippines (Finex) issued a statement yesterday congratulating “the Filipino people who were all engaged in exercising their right of suffrage,” the Commission on Elections (Comelec) “for a job well done” as well as “the teachers, the military, the police and all those involved in the elections.” --->>>
Canada and Britain share the dubious distinction as the only two parliamentary democracies in the western world still clinging to the antiquated and unrepresentative first past the post voting system.
Its premise that two contending parties can effectively reflect the public will may have been true in a bygone simpler era of ethnically and geographically homogeneous societies. But FPTP serves only to frustrate the popular will and undermine democracy in today's world of multiracial, multicultural and often geographically diverse nations. --->>>
By 2013, Elections Canada – the federal agency responsible for conducting elections and applying electoral law – is expected to begin testing the security of its online system.
“The plan is to begin with an electronic registration process, and then move to i-voting,” says John Enright, spokesman for Elections Canada. “It's likely we'll test the voting system during a federal by-election, using Canadian military personnel who are stationed abroad as a test group.” --->>>
The head of the electoral watchdog tonight called for urgent parliamentary time to reform the voting system in the wake of last week's problems at the polls which excluded thousands of would-be voters.
Jenny Watson, who chairs the Electoral Commission, has launched an inquiry into what went wrong at several polling stations and is appealing for people who were affected to come forward to give evidence. She promised to report back within 10 days. --->>>
How widespread have the problems been? --->>>
Problems at polling stations, which left many people unable to cast their vote in the UK general election, are likely to prompt renewed calls for e-voting, according to analyst group Ovum.
Last night, hundreds of voters were turned away from polling stations, and police were called in to deal with queues, after the doors of polling booths closed at 10pm BST. Higher than expected turnouts across the country meant that many stations were understaffed and, in Liverpool, even ran out of ballot papers. --->>>
Voting electronically could prevent future problems at election polling stations, some experts claim.
The US is planning to introduce e-voting and India has already had it in place for some time.
However the British Electorial Commission has expressed concerns about the security of such systems.
The 2010 UK election was marred for those unable to vote within the designated time frame, due to long queues. --->>>
Crowds staged sit-ins and tried to block officials from taking ballot boxes Thursday, as officials struggled to cope with staggering turnout in some districts.
Electoral Commission chief Jenny Watson acknowledged that Britain's voting system had been unable to cope with a surge of voters in many districts.
"The system is creaking," Watson said, adding that "this old clunking Victorian infrastructure" couldn't handle modern elections. --->>>
An inquiry will be held after hundreds of voters were turned away from polling stations and police called to deal with queues as the voting deadline passed.
There were problems in parts of London, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle and Surrey.
One Sheffield official said the turnout had probably been the highest for 30 years and "it caught us out". --->>>
Thousands of people were deprived of the right to vote last night as polling stations were unable to cope with demand.
Election chiefs told The Times that the widespread failures to deal with high voter turnout may lead to re-runs in the next few weeks, which could be critical to the overall outcome. --->>>
The turnout in some areas was so high that long queues of electors were still waiting to cast their votes when polling stations closed at 10pm. The “Third World” scenes led to police being called to calm unrest and voters staging sit-ins as they demanded that counts be delayed.
Harriet Harman, the deputy prime minister, suggested that the Electoral Commission might have to rule on whether results were valid in cases where people who arrived in time to vote were not allowed to do so. --->>>
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