More Web voting - UK local elections May 2002

I obtained some information about another Web voting trial, this time in the
UK, in Crewe & Nantwich Borough (Cheshire). This has been the subject of
fairly low-key advertising, perhaps because it is limited to two wards
(local electoral districts), Wybunbury and Maw Green.

However, it has been publicised as "e-mail voting", when in fact it is "Web
voting". Details are sketchy (local council officials are somewhat hesitant
about providing too much detail), but the company behind the trial is the
Oracle Corporation, in the form of Oracle (UK) Ltd.

Basically, the Council has posted a letter (actual snail mail) to every
eligible voter in these two wards with a "secret code". Over the next few
days, a second such letter, with another "secret code", will be sent,
together with a URL within the Council's Web domain
(www.crewe-nantwich.gov.uk), which will allow the voter to select their
candidate and vote by entering the two previously-supplied codes.

The risks are pretty much as previously discussed in this forum for such
schemes, with the added irritation that only certain browsers are supported
- yes, it's IE and Netscape, but only the Windows versions, so tough cookie
to all you Linux-user voters out there - you have to turn up in person. It
looks like browser independence didn't feature highly in the design of the
trial, with only a vague reference to "security accreditation" being offered
as to why Linux browsers aren't acceptable.

That looks like a re-run of the UK Government Gateway browser-specificity
debacle - or the Microsoft Government Gateway, as we should call it now that
we have learned the Government has handed over the IPR for the whole thing
(£35m worth) to Microsoft completely free, on the basis of potential future
licence royalties... but that's another whole shed-load of risks...!

R M Crorie