T215B-Session 1
T215B-Session 1
T215B-Session 1
Communication and
information technologies (II)
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Session Outline
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A thematic framework
• We will be encountering five recurring themes,
which together provide a framework that can be
used for analyzing the technologies:
• Convenience
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3.1 Convenience
• Activity 1.2
• Think about your own experience of systems that provide online
access to information or services. Make some notes about them
in terms of convenience.
• Sol.: Online banking: paying bills and manage account online
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3.2 Identity
• When interacting with online services of the kinds, we cannot
offer birth certificate or driving license as evidence that “We
are who we are”!
• So, one aspect of identity is the means by which online
systems verify the identity.
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3.3 Reliability
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3.5 Consequences [1]
• The introduction of new systems frequently leads to
unforeseen results – both good and bad.
• When they fail (or fail to behave as expected) the effects can
fall anywhere on the continuum between inconvenience and
catastrophe.
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3.5 Consequences [2]
• One of the obvious questions to consider is ‘what might be
the consequences when things go wrong?’
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Part 2
Electronic voting
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2. Convenience: the Irish machines
• A report by the Commission in July 2006 concluded that the
machines recording the votes would be acceptable with some
modifications but the election management software, used to
set up the system for elections and count the votes, ‘was not of
the required standard’.
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3. Acceptability: the Dutch machines [4]
• So the machines were vulnerable to such re-programming.
• transportation of the machines was not subject to any special
security.
• The keys used to unlock the machines were all the same – one
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4.1 London [3]
• There were quite a lot of problems with scanners getting
jammed, particularly with postal ballots and other ballots which
had been folded by voters before being deposited in the ballot
boxes.
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4.1 London [4]
• Broken scanners were observed being replaced by others which
had been previously stored insecurely.
• Some faulty scanners marked ballot papers.
• Some of the information on the observer screens was obscure;
• Observers were unable to say with any confidence whether the
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4.1 London [5]
• Inconsistency was found between the number of ballots
recorded going into a ballot box at the polling station and the
number registered as counted from the same box at the
counting centre
➔ It all adds up to a problematic picture for electronic
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4.1 London [7]
• The Electoral Commission recommended that electronic
counting should not be used in UK elections until the
government introduces significant changes to the
process and to electoral law that would significantly
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4.2 United States (with a detour to Italy) [1]
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4.2 United States (with a detour to Italy) [2]
• In the context of voting machines, computers are complex,
prone to programming errors, crashing and mischievous or
malicious interference.
• They do what they are programmed to do.
• Any software that has over 200 000 lines of programming
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4.2 United States (with a detour to Italy) [3]
• Conclusion: eVoting and e-counting can, with
some reservations, meet the tests of
convenience (ease of use) and acceptability
(willingness to use).
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6. Conclusion [1]
• The voting system, with or without computers, should ensure
that each vote, as intended by the voter, is recorded and
counted with integrity.
• Also the final certified result must clearly represent the intent
of the voters at the time they cast their votes. It needs to be