[liberationtech] Fwd: Free and Fair Elections in Egypt

[Yosem Companys]

Sheila seems to be having trouble posting to the list, so I'm doing it on
her behalf.  Please direct all comments to her email address below.

I apologize for the inconvenience,

Yosem

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sheila Parks <sheilaruthparks at comcast.net>
Date: Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 6:02 PM
Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Free and Fair Elections in Egypt
To: Rebecca MacKinnon <rebecca.mackinnon at gmail.com>, Steve Weis <
steveweis at gmail.com>
Cc: "M[P" <liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu>


 Thanks, Rebecca

I do agree and hope that the Egyptians won't go to the e-voting machines,
but who knows

And the experiences of the rigged elections in Egypt for the last 30 years,
or whenever they had elections, were they always hand-counted, do you know?

An election now in Egypt will be so different from when Mubarak and his
thugs ran one, that I hope the Egyptians don't do what Steve did in his
email, that is, turn to the past and the elections

Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany have all gotten rid of their e-voting
machines and yes, there is lots of trouble in India

I do not understand how anyone could trust a machine or a computer, to count
our votes

Sheila


At 04:25 PM 2/13/2011, Rebecca MacKinnon wrote:

Important points.

Still, it's not a bad idea for people trying to put together free and fair
elections for the first time to be mindful - along with all of those core
prerequisites you mention - of the problems emerging around the world with
electronic voting machines.

See for example this "Security Analysis of India’s Electronic Voting
Machines" by a multi-national team of computer scientists:
 http://www.cse.umich.edu/~jhalderm/pub/papers/evm-ccs10.pdf

In the event (which may be unlikely) that the use of electronic voting
machines is seriously proposed or considered in Egypt, these problems are
certainly an excellent reason to stick with paper ballots.


On Feb 13, 2011, at 3:05 PM, Steve Weis wrote:

Egypt used hand-counted paper ballots in 2010 [1]. That didn't prevent voter
intimidation or ballot stuffing, like what's apparently shown in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4HBUKkXyIc

The specific mechanism of how the votes are cast is largely irrelevant
without vote enfranchisement, safe voting locations, media freedoms,
electoral oversight, and the ability to audit the results. Focusing on
whether someone votes with a pen and paper, or a touchscreen is missing the
bigger picture.

[1] - "Furor Grows Over Egypt's Election Results",
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/30/131704396/calls-grow-to-set-aside-egypt-s-election-results

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 10:00 AM, Sheila Parks < sheilaruthparks at comcast.net>
wrote:
 My blood runs cold every time I hear that, wondering if, no WHEN the US
privatized, riggable electronic voting machine industry will try to sell
their poisons to Egypt.

The youth and geeks who organized and those millions of leaders who took
part in Revolution know better than that, I tell myself

I would really appreciate comments from you who are involved in democracy
and technology.

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 Sheila Parks, Ed.D.

Founder
Center for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots
Belmont, MA 02478
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DEMOCRACY IN OUR HANDS
 www.handcountedpaperballots.org
sheila at handcountedpaperballots.org


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