From uncover the news
Netherlands says "nee" to electronic voting
World News Wednesday, 21 May 2008

The Ministry of the Interior in the Netherlands decided last week not to adopt electronic voting machines. The decision was made after reviewing extensive research which indicated that none of the available machines offered adequate privacy and security safeguards.

Developing new equipment that could meet the government's standards was deemed too costly and challenging. Instead, voters will go old-school: marking their choices on paper ballots which will be tabulated by machines. The government has also ordered periodic testing of the tabulation machines in order to ensure that they are consistently reliable.

"As long as there is no good alternative, Netherlands agrees with pencil and paper," the government said in a statement. "Research shows that there can be no guarantee of voter privacy with new voting devices. Electronic voting would require the development of new equipment and a large investment, both in money and organization. The government considers that this offers little value compared with pencil and ballot votes."