UK E-voting isn’t ready at all

Open Rights Group’s report on the May 2007 e-voting trials in Scotland and England is now published. I started to find the report hair-raising when I read that ‘problems included: use of desktop productivity software, machines in public areas with open ports, informal transfer of files using personal devices, and single-factor authentication’. In other words, bumbling amateurishness.

It’s pretty clear from the report that the people who run elections – from the the polling stations up to the Government’s Department of Constitutional Affairs – are generally not especially well trained in technological matters and are vulnerable to being blinded by science. They’re proud of their reputation for impartiality and feel threatened when people ask questions that they don’t understand about laptops and servers, internet connections and the like. Hence they have harmed their reputations by providing demonstrably incorrect answers to ORG’s observers rather than admitting that they cannot answer for themselves. Their lack of candour is regrettable because it undermines our confidence in them and therefore our confidence in the democratic process of the UK. I hope that these people are better trained in future to work with the new systems (which I am sure will prevail).

There were also shortcomings in the design of the ballot papers and vote counting interfaces – the items that voters and adjudicators were interacting with. Forms and interface design are both things in which, as an information designer, I have a professional interest. If any of the companies contracted to supply the e-voting systems are feeling a little shamefaced about what they have come up with so far, then why not consider asking the advice of one of my colleagues in information design?

Also see the Ministry of Justice’s announcement of the trials: http://www.justice.gov.uk/whatwedo/may2007electoralmodernisation.htm