tsKegel.com

Election Observing and The Open Rights Group

April 12th, 2008 by tsKegel

This May, London will come together to vote for a new mayor. The current mayor, Ken Livingstone has implemented many changes to the city, most of which had something to do with London’s public transport infrastructure. These changes, which have very much polarized opinion towards him, include but are not limited to:

• The Congestion charge
• Freezing bus fares for four years…
• …and then more than doubling the standard single fare
• Introducing Oystercards
• Removing the much loved routemaster bus from service.

There is significant controversy over some of these changes, most of it being centered around the congestion charge; seen by many as simply a hidden tax that has had little effect on congestion and has only served to hurt the livelihoods of small business owners within the zone. The controversy not only follows the changes that Ken has implemented but also his very character. Mr. Livingstone is on record comparing Jewish reporter Oliver Finegold to a [Nazi] “concentration camp guard”, only one of several instances in which his remarks have been less than polite. The polarised view of Livingstone means that the upcoming mayoral elections are going to be hotly contested. The main rival that Mr. Livingstone will have to contend with is Boris Johnson, a conservative party MP for Henley and one of the most recognisable people in British politics today. Mr. Johnson is seen by many as more of a likable character. Appearing publicly on television several times, mostly on the topical comedy panel show “Have I Got News For You”, often the subject of satire, even by his own supporters who recognise that he is sometimes bumbling. The third contender is the Liberal Democrats candidate, former police chief Brian Paddick, who happens to be backed by Sir Elton John.

The election is likely to be one of the largest London elections in quite some time, and the issue is made all the more complex by the fact that votes are being counted by machine (counted, not cast) in a process called e-counting (electronic-counting). The last time that e-voting or e-counting was used in the UK it failed miserably, this was on the 3rd of May 2007 when elections were held across most of the UK’s mainland. Wales held National Assembly elections, Scotland local government and Scottish Parliamentary elections whilst, in England, local government elections were held in most authorities outside of London. Some of these elections involved e-counting and e-voting, which were observed by the Open Rights Group with the goal of investigating whether or not the process was reliable. It was not. The Open Rights Group submitted a very damning report (pdf) on the topic. So problematic were the findings that they were discussed in the House of Commons.

The Open Rights Group will also be observing the london mayoral elections of 2008, and I will be joining them. I first came across the open rights group when FOWA (Future of web apps (a tech conference)) came to london. ORG had a stall there to which I was enticed with the promise of delicious maltesers. Here I heard about the e-voting and e-counting that had gone on during the May 2007 elections and was asked to help out or donate some money. I didn’t, but the Open Rights Group stayed at the back of my mind and I bookmarked their site. When a few weeks later David Smith, an IT teacher at my school mentioned them in a presentation pertaining to internet privacy I revisited their site and subscribed to their rss feed. I have been following the feed since and when a post appeared asking for help to observe the London elections I agreed to help out.

I had originally meant for this post to be a discussion of the ORG observers meetup that I went to the other night (Thursday the 10th of April) at the three kings pub in Clerkenwell. However, I found it impossible to discuss without some background on the subject. The meetup was definitely enjoyable though, starting around 6pm and continuing till around 1030. Discussion was wide ranging although generally within the region of politics and technology, touching on currently unfolding topics such as Phorm and others. Some of the discussion was a little over my head, not being the most experienced programmer and not following all of the politics was discussed.

I look forward to seeing the other ORG observers again on the 29th of April when a demonstration of the e-counting process will be given for those observing the London elections.

Tags: e-counting, e-voting, mayoral election 2008, me, open rights group, politics
You can follow responses to this post here or trackback