Finnish E-Voting System Loses 2% of Votes

kaip writes "Finland piloted a fully electronic voting system in municipal elections last weekend. Due to a usability glitch, 232 votes, or about 2% of all electronic votes were lost. The results of the election may have been affected, because the seats in municipal assemblies are often decided by margins of a few votes. Unfortunately, nobody knows for sure, because the Ministry of Justice didn't see any need to implement a voter-verified paper record. The ministry was, of course, duly warned about a fully electronic voting system, but the critique was debunked as 'science fiction.' There is now discussion about re-arranging the affected elections. Thanks go to the voting system providers, Scytl and TietoEnator, for the experience."

Re:Usability Glitch?

[Kenoli]

Apparently some people (approximately 2%) have problems following simple instructions. Clearly a glitch in the system.

Re:Usability Glitch?

[Adrian Lopez]

Some voters did not press "ok" for the second time.

Press OK to Finnish?

Re:Usability Glitch?

[msormune]

Well you are not entirely accurate in your "keep stupid people from voting" argument, since at least 50% of people are stupid. We need worse and less clear instructions here in Finland to achieve the goal :)

Re:Usability Glitch?

[Adrian Lopez]

Damn. I meant to post that as an Anonymous Coward.

voting machines sales that go to the lowest bidder

[Achoi77]

I guess that's what you get when you get a system made as cheaply as possible.

If they really wanted a good system, they should have looked up who makes those ATM machines for banks.

Or at the very least, those automate ticket vendors at the movie theater. Even those have a goddamn paper trail. What the hell, do those just cost TOO much to deploy?

Re:Commies to blame?

[francium de neobie]

We've always been at war with Eastasia, you know?

Re:voting machines sales that go to the lowest bid

[MorderVonAllem]

If they really wanted a good system, they should have looked up who makes those ATM machines for banks.

What? Like Diebold?

Re:Usability Glitch?

[sumdumass]

It's probably one of those things that works in theory and blows up in operation. I guess you can say it looked good on paper.

Re:Usability Glitch?

[Anonymous Coward]

But everybody agrees that "it could never happen here" - after all, us Finns are such a peace-loving people, and we have learned so much from the histories of Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Portugal, China, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, etc. We aren't ever going to be stupid like them.

Re:The oldest democracy on the planet

[plasmacutter]

actually, athens is.

Re:voting machines sales that go to the lowest bid

[Antique Geekmeister]

You want George Bush to win the election in Finland?

First Post!

[PearsSoap]

I tried to post before, but it seems that Slashdot discarded the post.

Re:Usability Glitch?

[wvmarle]

Considering your UID I think you're here so long you completely lost any anonymity you may have ever had. We know you Adrian.

Re:Usability Glitch?

[Anonymous Coward]

In places such as Chicago and south Texas, that population would generate about 93,456,348 votes in a normal election - more if there were important ballot initiatives.