The highest German court ruled just an hour ago that the use of "voting
machines" of the type used in the 2005 election to the German Bundestag
violated the German constitution. Although the ruling specifically referred to
the 2005 election and the machines used in it (in parts of the country), it
will also have to be respected in future national, federal or communal
elections; it does not forbid the use of "voting machines" in general, but will
require them to use a complete diferent concept.

The court found that the particular type of machines allowed neither (a) the
voting person, nor (b) the election helpers, nor (c) the public to verify that
their votes were counted correctly, and was therefore against the constitution
requiring the voting and vote counting to be "public" (i.e. although the
individual vote is cast secretly, the public must be able to verify that the
individual votes are counted correctly)

The type of "voting machines" used in Germany until today are embedded computers
that do not provide for a paper audit trail, i.e. the whole voting process
(where such machines were used) was fully electronic.

This is a severe blow to the voting computer industry: I expect "voting
machines" to be out of business in Germany for quite a while, being replaced by
the classic paper & pen solution again (which has still been in use in many
parts of the nation without any trouble), and I hope the industry will be under
much higher pressure to come up with a really sound solution for the next
generation of voting computers (I'm realist enough to not expect them to give
up).

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