[Fsfe-uk] London Elections: "Insufficient evidence" to declare confidence in results

[Glyn Wintle]

I guess this is what you have to expect on closed systems.

The Open Rights Group's report into e-counting of votes cast in the London 
Elections is out today. The report finds that:

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/07/02/org-verdict-on-london-elections-insufficient-evidence-to-declare-confidence-in-results/

    "there is insufficient evidence available to allow independent observers to 
state reliably whether the results declared in the May 2008 elections for the 
Mayor of London and the London Assembly are an accurate representation of 
voters' intentions."

Votes for London Mayor and the 25 member London Assembly were counted 
electronically, and overall the election was well-managed by the independent 
body set up to run elections in London, London Elects.

However, transparency around the recording of valid votes was a major issue, 
leading many of our team of 27 official observers to conclude that they were 
unable to observe votes being counted. And while hundreds of screens set up by 
vote scanners showed almost meaningless data to observers, London Elects admit 
that the system was likely to be recording blank ballots as valid votes.

The report also details how London Elects are unable to publish an audit, 
commissioned from KPMG, of some of the software used to count the London vote, 
because of disputes over commercial confidentiality. The situation highlights 
the problems that arise when the very public function of running elections is 
mixed with issues of commercial confidentiality and proprietary software. In 
the context of a public election, it is unacceptable that these issues should 
preclude the publication of the KPMG audit.

London Elects will pay Indra – the company who supplied both Bedford and 
Breckland during last year’s chaotic trials of e-counting technology in local 
elections – upwards of £4.5 million for delivering the London e-count. Today’s 
report recommends a full cost benefit analysis of any future e-count, set 
against a properly costed manual count.