Ireland has a curious and therefore very Irish experience with electronic voting machines. Wikipedia summarises the entire debacle:
<blockquote>Electronic voting machines for elections in the Republic of Ireland were used on a trial basis in 2002, but plans to extend it to all polling stations were put on hold in 2004 after public opposition and political controversy. Electoral law was amended in 2001 and 2004 and sufficient voting machines for the entire state were purchased, but the plan was officially dropped in 2009 and the machines were subsequently scrapped. Elections continue to use paper ballots completed in pencil.</blockquote>
The whole entry is worth reading.
A Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp demonstrated how easy it was to falsify results in elections when these machines were used.
The final result was a move away from e voting to “stupid old pencils” (Bertie Ahern ex Prime Minister).
That was a while ago you might say. Yes, but as we know, if someone is smart enough to devise a system someone else will be smart enough to hack it.
