e-voting in Japan

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rod Van Meter <rdv () sfc wide ad jp>
Date: February 8, 2008 4:23:30 AM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: e-voting in Japan

An article in today's Daily Yomiuri:

Future of e-voting in doubt / Discussion needed to ease fears about
touch-screen machines
Ryota Akatsu / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

A bill designed to introduce electronic voting in national elections has
been left up in the air due to worries about the system's reliability.

The bill to revise the law on special provisions of the Public Offices
Election Law has been carried over to the current Diet session at the
House of Councillors after the House of Representatives passed it in the
extraordinary Diet session.
<snip>

E-voting was permitted from February 2002 only for local governments
that established ordinances on it.

In June that year Niimi, Okayama Prefecture, was the first municipality
in the country to introduce the system for mayoral and municipal
assembly elections. Since then 10 municipalities have used e-voting
machines in 16 elections. The system is to be used in some areas in the
Feb. 17 Kyoto mayoral election.

<snip>

However, it is true that past trouble over e-voting damaged the
credibility of the system.

In the Kani, Gifu Prefecture, municipal assembly election of July 2003,
all servers at the city's 29 polling stations went down and in the
longest incident voting was made impossible for 83 minutes.

Residents filed a lawsuit to nullify the election results, and the
Supreme Court ruled that the election was invalid.

In November 2003, there were problems with lines connecting voting
machines and servers in mayoral and city assembly elections in Ebina,
Kanagawa Prefecture. The Tokyo High Court ruled the election results
were valid.

The two accidents have made many municipal governments reluctant to
introduce e-voting systems.

<snip>

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080208TDY04302.htm

And for those interested in what Americans would call Second Amendment
issues:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080208TDY01302.htm

Interviews with your neighbors (at a national scale).  Would your
neighbors attest that you won't go postal?

                --Rod




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