(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
All Nedap/Groenendaal voting machines were decertified on 1 October 2007 by District Court of Alkmaar in the Netherland, following the 'Voting with confidence' advice issued on 27 September by Korthals Altes Committee (created with the purpose to verify the validity of the systems), and the announcement of the Secretary for the Interior that the 'Regulations for approval of voting machines 1997' would be withdrawn.
The action is the result of an administrative law procedure started by 'We do not trust voting computers' foundation in March 2007. The foundation had issued a report in October 2006 that had examined the Nedap/Groenendaal ES3B in operation in 8 out of the 9 poling stations in the Netherlands. The report was showing that the systems were highly insecure, leaving room for fraud at a large scale. The Korthals Altes Committee report came to confirm the results of the foundation.
In their report, 'We do not trust voting computers' showed how the system worked, what software they had created for it and gave details on how one could get complete and undetected control of the election results if one had access to the devices before the elections, even for a brief period. The report also showed that radio emanations for the systems could be received at a several meter distance giving the possibility to find out how people voted.
The next elections in the Netherlands will use paper ballots and red pencil, a method that provides transparency and that is now used in several countries of Europe and in the US where a paper copy of each vote is required. In Ireland, the use of the voting machines is stopped due to serious questions regarding their security and the UK election council intends stopping all electronic voting pilot projects that had been carried on during the last years. In Germany doubts have arisen regarding their use as well. In France, serious problems occurred during the pilot electronic voting in spring election, the system having been considered a disaster. A petition for the preservation of the paper voting was issued on that occasion.
In the future, the next phase in The Netherlands after paper poling could be the use of 'vote printers' and separate counting machines.
Dutch voting computers decertified
http://www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/English
Study by "We do not trust voting computers" foundation (6.10.2006)
http://www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/images/9/91/Es3b-en.pdf
EDRI-gram: E-voting in France - After the First Round of Presidential
Elections (25.04.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.8/e-voting-france
EDRI-gram: European e-voting machines cracked by Dutch group (11.10.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.19/e-voting