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Title:Observations of the Scottish elections 2007
Authors: Russell Lock ; Tim Storer ; Natalie Harvey ; Conrad Hughes ; Ian Sommerville
Date: 2008
Publication Title:eGov 2007 (Third e-Government Workshop)
Publisher:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publication Type:Conference Paper Publication Status:Published
Volume No:2 Page Nos:104-118
DOI:10.1108/17506160810876185 ISBN/ISSN:1750-6166
Abstract:
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an observational examination of the recent Scottish elections, within which an e-counting system was employed to manage the increased complexity of the Scottish electoral system for the first time. Design/methodology/approach – Observations of an ethnographic nature, supplemented by written documentation used for both training and public consumption during the Scottish election process. Findings – It was found that the voting system for the Scottish elections had not received sufficient review or testing prior to the election; further that the design choices imposed by the DRS software did not support the actions of its users efficiently enough, or justify confidence in the dependability of the system. Practical implications – That the deployment of e-counting systems requires careful consideration; many of the issues raised in this paper are similar to those of the official Scottish Elections Review, to which our team provided input. Originality/value – The Scottish elections were the first to allow members of the public to register as election observers, accredited by the Electoral Commission. As such, the Scottish elections represented the first large-scale opportunity to observe such processes for the academic community.
Copyright:
2008 Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Links To Paper
No links available
Bibtex format
@InProceedings{EDI-INF-RR-1361,
author = { Russell Lock and Tim Storer and Natalie Harvey and Conrad Hughes and Ian Sommerville },
title = {Observations of the Scottish elections 2007},
book title = {eGov 2007 (Third e-Government Workshop)},
publisher = {Emerald Group Publishing Limited},
year = 2008,
volume = {2},
pages = {104-118},
doi = {10.1108/17506160810876185},
}


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