France: IT'S ANOTHER HISTORIC ELECTION!

[Joanne98]

:grr: I hope the French aren't going to take this lying down!
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/03/business/paris.php
Electronic voting has come to France
By Elaine Sciolino

Tuesday, April 3, 2007
PARIS: Could the French presidential election have a problem like Florida had last year?

Electronic voting was supposed to be a symbol of France's modernity, the first time that some voters would have the chance to choose a president by touching a computer screen or pressing a button.

But as Election Day approaches, opposition to electronic voting machines has swelled, in part because a small percentage of them are made by the same American company involved in a disputed congressional election in Florida last November.

"We have doubts about the reliability of these machines," Gilles Savary, a spokesman for Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate, said in an interview. "I don't want to lecture America. But we don't want France to fall into the same Kafkaesque balloting as happened in the United States."

Last week, the Socialist Party called for a moratorium on the machines until their reliability could be determined. The party also wants a debate in Parliament.

"The fear shown by numerous voters faced with a system they don't know runs the risk of keeping them away from the polls," the party said in a communiqué Friday, adding that the risk of fraud and of "massive and undetectable errors" were very real.

Among the problems cited was the case of as many as 18,000 electronic votes that went missing in a tight congressional race last November in Florida.

The communiqué noted that two of the three types of machines approved by the French government, Nedap of the Netherlands and ES&S-iVotronic, the company that made the machines used in Florida, had been "sharply disputed in countries in which they've been used."

Up to 1.5 million of France's 44.5 million registered voters - about 3 percent of the electorate - are expected to cast their ballots electronically in more than 80 municipalities across the country, according to the Interior Ministry.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/03/business/paris.php

[KittyWampus]

1. It seems so easy to just figure on the Rightwing desperately grasping power world wide

by going the electronic voting route. It's so easy.

[Joanne98]

3. The new e-voting machines were not trusted by everyone but guess who!

I say that pretty much sums it up!

[Joanne98]

2. Electronic voting disputed in France

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_disputed_in_France
Electronic voting disputed in France
From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!
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April 18, 2007

An ES&S I-Votronic machine to be used in Issy-les-Moulineaux.
Traditional ballot boxes are transparent (since 1988) and vote counting procedures are heavily codified.In France, voting has traditionally been a low-tech experience: voters isolate themselves in a booth, put a pre-printed sheet of paper indicating their candidate of choice into an envelope. After officials verify the voter's identity, the voter drops the envelope into the ballot box and signs the voting roll. French electoral law rather strictly codifies the proceedings. Since 1988, ballot boxes must be transparent so that voters and observers can witness that no envelopes are present at the start of the vote and that no envelopes are added except those of the duly counted and authorized voters. Candidates can send representatives to witness every part of the process. In the evening, votes are counted by volunteers under heavy supervision, following specific procedures.

In the past, voting machines, though authorized by law, were scarce. But this year, during presidential elections (the first round was April 22, the second is on May 6), the country is shaken by controversy about the machines intended to count about 1.5 million votes.

As in the United States, there is a group of academic computer scientists that oppose voting machines. They argue that voting machines replace a public, easily understandable counting process, where large-scale fraud would entail large-scale corruption, by an opaque process where votes are counted by machines that voters have to blindly trust. Voting machines have to be approved by the Ministry of the Interior, but this approval is based on confidential reports by private companies. Opponents to the machines point out that the Ministry was long held by Nicolas Sarkozy, who happens to be the leading candidate. Opponents also list a number of weaknesses and discrepancies that have occured in other countries using voting machines.

All main political parties except UMP, Mr Sarkozy's ruling party, oppose the voting machines. Some citizens have filed for court injunctions against the voting machines. Opponents have given detailed instructions that voting witnesses should check whether the machines correspond exactly to an approved type, including software versions, and fulfill all legal conditions. In a sign of the frenzy over the issue, on April 12 the Ministry of the Interior issued a last-minute authorization for a specific model (hardware, firmware). The stakes are high: votes on unapproved machines should be canceled by the Constitutional Council for the official count.

The opposition has crystallized on the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux. Issy's mayor, André Santini is a well-known technophile; his city organizes a "World E-Gov Forum". Here too, last minute fixes are at work. The machines delivered to the city are of a yet-to-be-approved type. The manufacturer, the American company ES&S voting systems, is now delivering older 2005 machines. Le Monde reports that other municipalities have already replaced their recent machines by an older, approved, model.

Proponents of the machines, such as the French company France Élection, claim they are being defamed and dispute the competence of their critics. Elected officials supporting the machines claim the machines save on paper, time, and the need to find volunteers to count votes.


Sources
Parliament of France "Electoral Code". the French Republic, January 4, 1989
Pr Andrew Appel "Ceci n'est pas une urne: On the Internet vote for the Assemblée des Français de l'Étranger". Princeton University & INRIA, June 14, 2006
The chief of staff, by delegation of the Minister of the Interior "Decision of April 12, 2007, approving a NEDAP voting machine". the French Republic, April 14, 2007
Jean Marc Manach "Recours auprès du préfet et de la justice". LeMonde.fr, April 18, 2007
Jean Marc Manach "Les machines à voter d'Issy-les-Moulineaux ont été discrètement remplacées". LeMonde.fr, April 18, 2007
The chief of staff, by delegation of the Minister of the Interior "Decision of October 19, 2005, approving a ES&S 'I-Votronic' voting machine". the French Republic, October 29, 2005
"Baptême du feu et controverse pour le vote électronique". Les Échos, April 18, 2007
Thomas Crampton "France to chose president with help of electronic voting". International Herald Tribune, April 17, 2007
Michèle Lauret and Jean-Marc Philibert "La polémique continue d'enfler sur le vote électronique". Le Figaro, April 18, 2007
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_disputed_in_France
External links
Ordinateurs-de-vote
France Élection
Retrieved from "http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_disputed_in_France"

[SoCalDem]

19. Odd , isn't it? All oppose except the guy who ended up winning

All that's necessary to 'win' these days, is a compliant press who ballyhoos a "last minute" surge in the polls, and promotes the rising popularity... The vote-count is just "adjusted' to match the bogus polls..and there ya go !

Any candidate who dares to question, is then pilloried by the same press, who labels them "sore losers".

[acmavm]

4. Do I think that some monkey business with the voting machines is out of

the question? Hell no. I remember what happened here. Twice.

Do I know what to think about this? No. Because Royal was behind in the polls prior to the elections.

I have more faith in the French people and their ability to figure out what happened then I do Americans. If something was wrong, I fully believe that they'll be able to get to the bottom of it.

[Joanne98]

5. Poll numbers can be faked!

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. It's one of the favourite tools of the right, i.e. historically both parties in the US.

But surely, even in the US, particularly, the Republicans.

[acmavm]

8. I have faith in the French people that if there was a problem, they'll

uncover it. And unlike here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, I think that they'll do something about it.

[Joanne98]

9. I hope so!

[Joe Chi Minh]

6. Strange. All the MSM talking heads are touting Sarky as being at least 10%

in the polls, while blithely conceding to the viewers that the unusually massive turnout favours the left. The right-wing noise machine, i.e everyone from Reuters to Joe Boggs has been giving out this drumbeat. It makes me very suspicious. Which suburbs or areas have the machines? If heavily pro Segolene......, what's the betting? Latest news - 75% turnout 2 hours before end of voting!!!!

I like this from Joanne98's post #2: "All main political parties except UMP, Mr Sarkozy's ruling party, oppose the voting machines."!!!!

In Scotland, if New Labour were the beneficiaries of the election mess-up, that also will make me very suspicious. I saw Solidarity left-wing fire-brand, Tommy Sheridan, seeming to bite his lip to prevent himself from commenting on the matter - which is most strange for any politican, and certainly for him. It's even occurred to me that they may hold the perjury allegation re the earlier "sexual shenanigans" court case over his head, i.e. resurrect it.

[Joanne98]

12. That's not strange. The MSM calls Bush the President even though

he's never won and election!

[Joe Chi Minh]

14. Well, it was an ironical "strange".

[annabanana]

10. Maybe the FRENCH will throw the damn machines into the Seine

and remind us how these things are done.

[deadmessengers]

11. The Seine's polluted enough

nice idea, though. Perhaps a steamroller would work a little better?

[Joanne98]

13. And throw the fascists in with them!

[Joe Chi Minh]

15. A Scotsman went into one voting centre and smashed a number of the machines.

Alas, he was arrested.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

16. Do any of the machines used in France print out ballots that could be recounted?

[Joe Chi Minh]

17. Now, it is more imperative than ever for the Socialists in France to denounce

the unacceptable vulnerabilities of the electronic machines, any electronic machines, to hacking - in the unanimous opinion of IT experts. Or the thin end of the wedge will grow wider and wider by the day.

There is a superabundance of unambiguous, statistical data in the USA, evidencing this very fundamental truth, vouched for by eminent academics at the most prestigious universities. The circumstantial evidence grows by the day. The corporatist Establishment, worldwide, will stop at nothing to continue its pillaging rampage.

[Jim Warren]

18. Can you say Coalition of the Willing?

BUSH CONGRATULATES SARKOZY ON ELECTION VICTORY
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON

US President George W. Bush called Nicolas Sarkozy to congratulated him for his victory in the French presidential election Sunday.

"The United States and France are historic allies and partners," Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said in a statement after Sarkozy's opponent Segolene Royal conceded defeat.

"President Bush looks forward to working with President-elect Sarkozy as we continue our strong alliance."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178431584738&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

No more of that cheese eating surrender monkey!