German High Court’s Ruling Strikes Down
Electronic Voting Under Principles of Democracy
Signed by and Imposed by USA After WWII
Paul R Lehto, Juris Doctor
Lehto.paul@gmail.com
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
According to a ruling by Germany’s highest court yesterday, computerized voting machines used by 2 million of Germany’s 5 million voters in 2005’s parliamentary elections are unconstitutional because they are not in line with democratic standards and principles — especially the “publicity” of the vote counting (i.e. transparency, visibility). The court added that “specialized technical knowledge” may not be demanded of observing citizens, and that government-defined checks or audits are no substitute for the constitutional requirement of publicity via observation.
The ruling of Germany’s highest court affirmed the principles required for a constitutional voting system that makes Self-Government possible, which include the following tests:
1. No “specialized technical knowledge” can be required of citizens to vote or to monitor vote counts. (This is a simple application of democracy’s equality principle combined with an aversion to an aristocracy of experts.)
2. The constitutional requirement of a publicly observed count. (The court noted that the government substitution of its own check or what we’d probably call an “audit” is no substitute at all for public observation or “publicity” – the term of art favored by Founders of the USA.)
3. A paper trail simply does not suffice to meet the above standards, the court states in its ruling on the NEDAP system used in the 2005 elections.
4. CONCLUSION: As a result of these principles, a source in Ireland concludes that “all independent observers” conclude that “electronic voting machines [are totally] banned in Germany” because no conceivable computerized voting system can cast and count votes that meet the twin requirements of publicity: being both “observable” and also not requiring specialized technical knowledge.
Sources: European media (links at bottom.)
Consequently, the 2009 elections in June and September may not use existing machines and will be on paper, hand counted.
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