Dutch hackers cast more doubt on e-voting system

HACKERS manipulated votes and played video games on e-voting machines in the Netherlands, similar to those bought for use in Ireland.

A Dutch anti-e-voting group replaced a microchip in the machine and demonstrated the result on Dutch television on Wednesday night.

Electronic voting has been used in the Netherlands for years but opposition has been growing following reports on the Irish experience.

The group, called We Don’t Trust These Electronic Voting Machines, got their technical information from the Irish Government’s report on the controversial €52 million Nedap e-voting machines, which are now in storage.

Colm MacCarthaigh of Irish Citizens for Trustworthy E-voting (ICTE) was in Amsterdam for the show and said he had seen and examined the hacked machines.

“The attack presented by the Dutch group would not need significant modification to run on the Irish systems. The machines use the same construction and components, and differ only in relatively minor aspects, such as the presence of extra LEDs [displays] to assist voters with the Irish voting system,” he said.

Margaret McGaley of ICTE said it proved that no voting system that lacks a voter-verified audit trail can be trusted: “Any system which lacks a means for the voter to verify that their vote has been correctly recorded is fundamentally and irreparably flawed.”

The hacking proved that the machines themselves are a problem, as well as the software.

“This particular issue is not about the vote-counting software, which we already know must be replaced, this is about the machines that the Taoiseach has claimed were ‘validated beyond any question’,” Ms McGaley said.

“We now have proof that these machines can be made to lie about the votes that have been cast on them. It is abundantly clear that these machines would pose a genuine risk to our democracy if used in elections in Ireland,” she said.

The independent report commissioned by the Government and released in July said the voting machines could be used but needed to be modified and have new software installed.

The Dutch hackers said they were easy to break into and the same key would open all the 8,000 machines used in the Netherlands.