Posted on 04/24/2007 5:52:37 AM PDT by RKV
The Socialists, the Communist Party and the Greens put on a rare show of unity to call the machines, used for around 1.5 million of France's 44.5 voters, a "catastrophe."
It is the first time the machines have been used for a presidential election in France. Amid big queues in general to vote, people using the electronic machines were forced to wait up to two hours to cast ballots.
The left wing parties complained following problems at Noisy-le-Sec, a suburb east of Paris.
"In line with our forecasts, the electronic vote has been a catastrophe," the parties said in a statement. They said that many voters had walked away in disgust because of the wait.
Protests came from other cities as well.
Philippe de Villiers, a nationalist Catholic candidate in the election, called it a "cheating machine" as he voted in his home town of Herbiers in western France.
Daniel Guerin, a member of the Paris regional council, made an official complaint to the Constitutionl Council because of "disfunctioning" machines in his constituency in Villeneuve-le-Roi, in the Paris suburbs.
The elderly had particular problems with the machines. Many said they did not believe the computerised system would keep their vote secret.
"I have come here twice and twice I have had to walk away without voting. It takes too long," said Pierre Bascoulergue, a pensioner in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. "I just don't trust these machines."
The Issy town hall said the long queues were because of the huge turnout in the election.
In the champagne capital of Reims in eastern France a breakdown delayed the start of computer voting. The complicated machines further held up voting in the city during the day.
"It is total chaos, we don't understand anything," said 70-year-old Suzanne Antoine.
"You put your card in and it says 'continue'. Then nothing lights up. I managed to finish but I prefer the way it was before."
Researchers at Paul Verlaine University in Metz said that trials on two of the three machines used in France showed that four people out of every seven aged over 65 could not get their votes recorded.
Researcher Gabriel Michel, a psychologist, said the machines posed "enormous problems".
The computer has several buttons that allow electors to choose the candidate they want to back. There is also an "abstention" button for protest votes.
The interior ministry says the machines are not French but they have not had any problems since they were first used in 2003.
It also turns out that it has a disproportionate negative effect on the votes of older people (statistically they have a hard time figuring out the complexities of the process).
Following in the footsteps of AlGore and Lurch...
Sounds like the “loser” doesn’t like a ballot box they cannot stuff..........
and as if that’s not bad enough, the directions are written in French.
Well, the election in question was in France. Perhaps Arabic would have been more “user friendly.”
If it weren’t for the machines, Al Gore would be King of France.
It’s Bush’s fault!
I do believe that I called this one one Sunday.
The loser parties would blame the machines.
Oh well, lefties are lefties the world over.
Note it is mostly anecdotal “evidence” and many of the complaints are about delays, not the voting itself. Could be more a factor of turnout than of automation. Then again, who wants to be in line behind someone elderly using an ATM? I do not like voting machines for many reasons but this story offers little beyond simple complaining ... but what should we expect coming out of Noisy-le-Sec?
what the heck is wrong with these people???? I could program a working voting machine in a couple of days.... this is not recket science- you click a few buttons and store the results- programming rarley gets as simple as this.... grrrrrrrrrrr
I know- it is governemnt programmers. I wiorked with som eof them. We had a database administrator who could not turn on the database. A senior progammer who spent 6 months writing a 2 days program, and who could not debug a simple string overwrite.
Why countries are so keen on voting machines (with all their problems) when pencil and paper works well enough mystifies me.
Hogwash. They are three peas in a pod always united in their lust for power and their contempt for the individual.
The Sarkman really scares them. Works for me. In spite of past performance, it really is in the US interest for France to reform itself (a la Britain under Thatcher).
Prevents multiple voting.
Yup... may be slow but non hanging “shads”.
The commies can’t stuff an electronic ballot box.
“Perhaps Arabic would have been more “user friendly.””
Exactly.
Just give them an alternative way of voting. How hard can this be?
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