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UPDATE

I am no longer working on an e-voting project and therefore I am not updating this particular page anymore with news items about electronic voting.

Moreover, since the start of my research in 2002, e-voting has become a real hot topic and it would be difficult to keep up with all the related news articles. Just use Google News to keep up to date! If you are interested in electronic voting in the Netherlands (and you are able to read Dutch), surf to http://www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/Media-overzicht

Newspaper Articles 2005

• Estonia forges ahead with e-vote. Voters in Estonia are going to the polls on Sunday in local elections but, for the first time, nearly all of them have already had the chance to cast their vote if they want to via the internet. About 800,000 Estonians, or 80% of those on the electoral roll, have access to a new e-voting system, the largest run by any European Union country. By Laura Sheeter, BBC News, 14 October 2005.

   

• Paper Trail Urged as E-Voting Fix. Paper Trail Urged as E-Voting Fix A blue-ribbon panel led by former President Jimmy Carter recommends electronic-voting machines be required to keep hard copies of every ballot. But critics say printouts create more problems than they solve. By Kim Zetter. Wired News 23 September 2005.

• Web and text vote trials dropped. Proposed trials of voting via internet or text message in next year's local council elections have been scrapped by the UK government. Elections Minister Harriet Harman said: "We just think that the time is not right for it at the moment." BBC News, 6 September 2005.

• E-elections wait for vote of confidence. While pilot projects have taken place in UK elections - notably in the 2003 local government poll - the idea of voting electronically simply hasn't taken off, even though casting a ballot from home could dramatically improve voter "turnout" and boost the health of democracy itself. By Geoff Neville. Belfast Telegraph, 14 March 2005.

• Voting machine bills may advance. Support for a major upgrade to the state's electronic voting machines appears to be growing in the House of Delegates, while the state has ordered Diebold to investigate why some of its machines failed on Election Day. By Steven T. Dennis. The Gazette, 9 March 2005.
   

• Diebold to market paper-trail e-voting system.Diebold Election Systems Inc., a target of many electronic-voting critics during the 2004 U.S. election, announced today that it has completed the design for a printer that would give its e-voting machines a paper trail. Diebold's printer, submitted for federal government approval several weeks ago, would create a so-called voter-verified paper trail, a function that many critics have demanded of e-voting machine manufacturers. By Grant Gross, Computerwolrd. 27 January 2005.

Newspaper Articles 2004

• Study Finds Florida 'Ghost' E-Votes. Cal trio: Results showing a Bush boost may help stop future snags. In the nation's first academic study of the Florida 2004 vote,
  University of California, Berkeley graduate students and a professor have found intriguing evidence that electronic-voting counties there could have mistakenly awarded up to 260,000 votes to President Bush. By Ian Hoffman, Oakland Tribune. November 19, 2004.

• Voter Alert Line calls: State-by-state. A very interesting page which shows the volume of voting problem calls received on the voter alert line during the US elections (constant updates!!!). It also provides a breakdown of the voter problems by machine type. So far the electronic voting machines have far more problems than any of the other machines (optical scan, lever, etc). MSNBC, 2 November 2004.

• Some Early Voters Say Machines Mark Incorrect Choices. Kim Griffith voted on Thursday— over and over and over. She's among the people in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties who say they have had trouble with early voting equipment. When they have tried to vote for a particular candidate, the touch-screen system has said they voted for somebody else.  ABQjournal.com, 22 October 2004.

• Problems with e-voting? Blame the humans. Voters worried that an electronic voting machine might accidentally eat their vote on Nov. 2 would be better off pointing the finger of blame at clueless poll workers than at shiny new touchscreen machines, according to information released by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). By Paul Roberts, IDG News Service. 19 October 2004.

• Focus on Florida as voting begins. People in Florida began casting their votes for US president on Monday, four years after a debacle in the state held up the 2000 election result. Florida is one of 32 states where voters are allowed to make their choice before election day. There were some reports of glitches with voting systems, including faulty ballots and a computer crash. BBC News, 19 October 2004.

• OUT NOW: Communications of the ACM. Special Issue on Voting Systems. Volume 47 , Issue 10 (October 2004) ISSN:0001-0782. New York: Publisher ACM Press.

• Election progress in Kazakhstan slowed due to lack of transparency, observers report. The 19 September parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan fell short of OSCE and Council of Europe standards in many respects. Of particular concern were the failure to fully implement improved election legislation and the manner in which electronic voting was introduced, which did not contribute to the confidence of the electorate in the election process, concludes the International Election Observation Mission (IEOM) in a statement, issued today.

• Saving the Vote. Everyone knows it, but not many politicians or mainstream journalists are willing to talk about it, for fear of sounding conspiracy-minded: there is a substantial chance that the result of the 2004 presidential election will be suspect. By Paul Krugman, August 17, 2004, The New York Times.

• E-voting terminals: gambling with data? Making electronic voting terminals more like slot machines won't keep elections secure from tampering. Neither will using ATMs as a model improve the prospects for data integrity. By Tim Mullen, Tuesday 20th July 2004, The Register.

• Analysis reveals flaws in voting by touch-screen. Florida's relatively new touch-screen voting machines, touted as a solution to the state's 2000 presidential election meltdown, didn't perform as well as machines that use an older technology during a statewide election earlier this year, according to a South Florida Sun-Sentinel analysis. By Jeremy Milarsky and Buddy Nevins, July 11, 2004, Sun-Sentinel.com
   
• To increase security and improve public confidence in the voting process, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law (BC) released a new report providing specific recommendations for elections officials planning to use electronic voting machines in the 2004 elections.
   
• Dutch e-voting software goes open source. The source code of the software that is used for online e-voting in the Netherlands has been made public by OSOSS, a Dutch association that promotes the use of open source software in government.
  By Jan Libbenga Wednesday 23rd June 2004, The Register.

• He Pushed the Hot Button of Touch-Screen Voting. Mr. Shelley, a Democrat and California secretary of state, has gained national notice for his skepticism toward touch-screen voting and his insistence that voters be able to look at a paper record inside the voting booth to verify their ballots. He says such paper trails are crucial if government wants voters to have confidence that their ballots are being counted correctly. As a result, he has ordered that after July 1, 2005, no county in California can buy a touch-screen system without a paper record that is verifiable by the voter, and as of July 2006, all touch-screen systems here must be equipped with paper trails, regardless of when they were bought. Until the machines have that capability, he wants people who do not trust them to have the option of voting by a traditional paper ballot. By Katharine Q. Seelye. June 15, 2004. The New York Times.

• Venezuelan Recall Is in Dispute Even Before the Vote. Touch-screen voting machines, which have been plagued by security and reliability concerns in the United States, will be used in the recall vote on President Hugo Chávez, prompting his foes and foreign diplomats to contend that the left-leaning government may use the equipment to manipulate the vote. By Juan Forero and John Schwartz.  June 11, 2004. The New York Times.

• E-voting debate: paper or no paper. As the administrator of elections for Maryland, Linda Lamone believes electronic voting machines are safe and secure, even without a paper trail. By Jason Miller, Government Computer News, 06/07/04; Vol. 23 No. 13.
   
• WWW.BigBrother.Gov. Computer-voting watchdog Bev Harris is squaring off with federal authorities over the government's request for information about visitors to her internationally renowned Web site, www.blackboxvoting.org. While Harris is determined to resist the government's investigation, a national expert on press freedom says the Renton muckraker will almost certainly face extensive fines or jail time if she refuses to cooperate. By George Howland Jr. Seattle Weekly, 19-25 May 2004.

• The bumpy road to modern elections in the Philippines. The money has been paid, the machines have been delivered, and the people have been told. But the Supreme Court declared that the computerization project is not valid and cannot be used. The Philippine Commission on Elections went back to using the old tally sheets to count the votes. By Erwin Lemuel G. Oliva, INQ7.net. May 09, 2004.
   
• Merits of E-Voting, Paper Backups Debated. Scientists told a federal panel Wednesday that electronic voting isn't completely reliable and suggested a backup paper system might be the only way to avoid another disputed presidential election in November. But Republican DeForest B. Soaries Jr., chairman of the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission said he didn't expect the bipartisan panel would issue national standards requiring paper receipts when it makes preliminary recommendations next week, followed by more detailed guidelines next month. By Hope Yen. Yahoo News May 5, 2004.
   
  Also: Citizens, Election Officials, Experts Call for Verified Votes. “The Computer Ate My Vote,” a national campaign to protect the integrity of American ballots came to Washington, DC today to tell federal election authorities that each ballot cast this November 2 must be backed by a voter-verified paper trail. In testimony before the Election Assistance Commission, election officials and computer experts called for transparent, verifiable voting systems. May 5, 2004. With 6 months to go, panel takes aim at e-voting bugs. By Kevin Coughlin, The Star-Ledger. May 05, 2004. E-Vote Controversy Comes to Commission. By Andy Sullivan, Reuters. May 5, 2004. Paper Receipts Opposed for Voting Machines. By Dan Keating, Washington Post. May 6, 2004. As election looms, voting machines are topic of debate. By Toby Eckert, The San Diego Union Tribune. May 5, 2004.
   
• Cullen rules out use of e-voting in June. The Irish Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Martin Cullen, has said electronic voting will not be used in the local and European elections in June. Mr Cullen's decision follows the publication of today's report from the Commission on Electronic Voting, which said the system's reliability could not be established to its satisfaction. In its report, the commission said it has not been able to satisfy itself sufficiently as to the accuracy and secrecy of the chosen system. RTE News 30 April 2004.
   
• On New Voting Machine, the Same Old Fraud. For the first time, electronic machines are being used across India in the staggered national elections that got under way this month. In less than 30 minutes on Monday morning, workers from a local political party, which political analysts say has kept Bihar's 100 million people mired in poverty, seized control of the voting machine. An old India abruptly reappeared, one that shows that the country still faces pitfalls as it pursues its dream of becoming a global economic and political power. In what appeared to be a carefully planned series of events, two small bombs exploded near the polling place and party workers threatened the five policemen guarding the booth and then brazenly took control of it. As poll workers and policemen averted their eyes, young party workers pushed the button for their party on the electronic voting machine over and over again, casting vote after fraudulent vote. By David Rohde, The New York Times, April 27, 2004.

• California votes against Diebold. California election officials on Thursday recommended banning some Diebold Election Systems voting machines and referred an investigation into the company to the attorney general for possible civil and criminal sanctions. By Paul Festa, April 22, 2004. CNET News.com, Also: Panel recommends ban on computer voting system by Elise Ackerman and Voting panel grills Diebold by Paul Festa.

• Indians vote in hi-tech election. Tens of millions of Indians have voted in phase one of the country's first all-electronic election. Authorities said polling had been fairly peaceful despite violence in Jammu and Kashmir and the north-east. BBC News. April 20, 2004.

• Chads are gone, but Florida faces new voting foul-up fears. Florida's infamous hanging chad has gone for ever, but not everyone is convinced the state that made such a mess of the presidential election four years ago can avoid a similar debacle this time around. By Richard Luscombe in Miami, April 18, 2004. The Observer.

• Senators call for paper trail in e-voting. Glitches cited in Florida's primary Tuesday.Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bob Graham called Wednesday for a paper trail to back up electronic voting throughout the country. The Democratic senators told reporters a bill they have drafted calls for every jurisdiction to have machines that produce paper records that would enable recounts. CNN.com, Thursday, March 11, 2004.

• Computer voting snafus plague California by Thomas C Greene in Washington. Bizarre election results in California have been traced to an electronic touch-screen ballot system. But no one is quite sure what went wrong, and because there is no paper trail, no one is ever likely to get to the bottom of it. The Register, March 10, 2004.

• Irish e-voting marks new era. This year people across the Irish Republic will vote electronically in the European and local elections for the first time. But as BBC NI's Dublin correspondent Shane Harrison reports, there is a great deal of unease about this development. BBC News, February 27, 2004.

• Irish e-voting furore hots up by electricnews.net. Mary Harney, Ireland's deputy prime minister, weighed into the fierce debate in Ireland surrounding e-voting yesterday, expressing some sympathy with opposition complaints about the proposed system. The Register, February 18, 2004.

• Gearing up for India's electronic election. Technicians are working overtime to make India's first all-electronic general election go smoothly, by Habib Beary. BBC News, February 27, 2004. For more information about the Electronic Voting Machine used in the Indian Elections take a look at the Election Commission of India website at the description on the EVM system.

• Firms have one year to introduce electronic voting for shareholders. Companies have until next year to introduce electronic voting for shareholders before they are named and shamed, a new report has warned. The report, from the Shareholder Voting Working Group, called for companies to introduce electronic voting for shareholders to replace the current paper-based system that is "riddled with errors". By Nick Huber, Computer Weekly. Tuesday 17 February 2004.

• Pentagon drops online votes for armed forces. The US Department of Defense has abandoned efforts to give overseas military personnel voting access over the internet, because of concerns about the security of the system. "In view of the inability to ensure legitimacy of votes that would be cast in the Serve internet voting project, thereby bringing into doubt the integrity of the election, I hereby direct you to take immediate steps to ensure that no voters use the system to register or vote via the internet," said deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz in a memo. Computer Weekly, Friday 6 February 2004.

• Two more regions for all-postal voting trial. The UK will not be running e-voting pilots in 2004. The Government accepted the Electoral Commission's recommendation not to proceed with electronic voting on a regional scale in the June 2004 elections, although it remains committed to the development of e-voting for the future. January 21, 2004.

• Flawed E-Voting Standard Sent Back to Drawing Board. Electronic Frontier Foundation: Victory for Fair Elections. Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release. September 26, 2003.

• World's biggest election goes electronic. India, the world's largest democracy, has announced that every vote in its 2004 national election will be registered and counted using electronic ballot machines. With more than 600 million registered voters, India's parliamentary election is the biggest on Earth. NewScientist.com news service, July 29, 2003.

• E-voting fails to stir the public Electronic voting has failed to make much of an impact on turnout in the local elections. BBC News Friday, 2 May, 2003.

• New voting methods 'increase turnout' All-postal ballots appear to have increased turnout for this year's local elections - even before polls close on Thursday. BBC News Wednesday, 30 April, 2003.

• Voters 'keen on e-election' More than half the population would be more willing to cast their vote at local elections if they could do so electronically, an opinion poll during the campaign suggested. BBC News Tuesday, 29 April, 2003.

• Thousands take up e-voting trial Nearly 6,000 people in Swindon have taken the opportunity to vote using a TV remote control or the internet. BBC News Tuesday, 29 April, 2003.

• Are Internet ballots a vote-fixer's dream? More than 1.5 million Britons will have a chance to vote Thursday in 17 local elections using electronic voting systems that computer security experts on both sides of the Atlantic say are fraught with danger and an invitation to fraud. International Herald Tribune Monday, April 28, 2003.

• EU e-voting site 'is a turn-off': report Forrester Research claims that the EU's e-Vote Web site may actually have a negative effect upon public perceptions of the Internet as a democratic agent. ElectricNews.net, Buckley, C. Wednesday, March 05 2003.

Newspaper Articles 2002

• Vijfjarig jubileum ISOC.nl Amsterdam, 26 november 2002. Sprekers zijn onder meer oud-minister Rogier van Boxtel, prof. Erik Huizer, Maurice de Hond en Koos Andriessen. Het thema van deze feestelijke jubileumbijeenkomst is "St@mmen; een actueel debat over interactieve democratie".

• E-voting unreliable, says expert Rebecca Mercuri is assistant professor of computer science at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and has given the government a stark warning - e-voting is unreliable and may end up causing huge amount of damage to the electoral process. Web posted on 21/10/02.

• Don't trust computers with e-votes, warns expert A world experts in electronic voting will today warn the government that trusting computers with the democratic process is a recipe for fraud and error. Stuart Millar, technology correspondent. Thursday October 17, 2002. The Guardian.

• Security of Electronic Voting UK publication of a study report on e- voting security by CESG - the information assurance group within GCHQ (part of the UK's security services). Issue 1.2, 31 July 2002.

• E-votes will push out ballot box 'by 2006'. "Tony Blair has set 2006 for the first possible general election where the traditional ballot box will be consigned to the museum and millions of people will be voting online or by post." Article by David Hencke, Westminster correspondent. Wednesday July 17, 2002. The Guardian.

• In the Service of Democracy In the Service of Democracy, the Government's consultation paper on a policy for electronic democracy is available for you to download. The report contains a full chapter on e-voting. Office of the e-Envoy, 15 July 2002.

• 'Electronisch stemmen levert de Europese kiezer voorlopig geen voordeel'. Dutch article stating that the use of electronic voting in the European Union is still years off. Interview with Vincent Rijmen, head Cryptography at the Belgian company Cryptomathic and involved in the EU project e-Vote. Automatisering Gids, vrijdag 21 juni 2002, nr 25.

• Electronic Voting in the 2001 ACT Election. By Leanne Manthorpe, Research Note No. 46, Department of the Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia, 18 June 2002.

• E-voting has long way to go. Election results mixed for alternative voting methods. By Wendy Brewer, Friday, 03 May 2002. Yesterday's poor turnout of voters in local elections was extremely disappointing to everyone in politics, but even more so to supporters of online voting systems which on the whole did little to improve participation.

• Vivendi Votes Hacked? Ha: Experts. Allegations by French media group Vivendi Universal that an embarrassing flop in a shareholder vote last week was down to hacker sabotage make little sense, security experts said on Monday. Wired News 6:54 a.m. April 29, 2002 PDT

• BBC News (2002) Online voting fraud warning. Tuesday, 5 February, 2002, 11:40 GMT. "Online voting schemes should be tested much more thoroughly before being rolled out for UK-wide elections, says a new report from an influential think tank".

• DTLR (2002) May elections to trial online voting Successful electoral pilots named. Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, News Release 5 February 2002

• Cook plans to make UK first to vote on internet. Jackie Ashley, Monday January 7, 2002 The Guardian.

• Reformers sceptical of online voting. Matthew Tempest, political correspondent Monday January 7, 2002 The Guardian.

• E-voting: A load of old ballots? BBC News Online, technology correspondent Mark Ward, Monday, 7 January, 2002, 12:42 GMT.

Electronic Voting in Europe - Technology, Law, Politics and Society

Alexander Prosser, Robert Krimmer (Eds.)

Electronic Voting and Democracy: A Comparative Analysis

Norbert Kersting, Harald Baldersheim