Tuesday, December 03, 2013  @ALDEParty Congress: election result
- Technology 0, Bureaucrats 1  Having been appointed as Congress
Returning Officer in a reprise of my double act with Daniel Obst
from the FDP in Dublin last time, our instructions were quite
simple. "We're using keypads to vote, so all you need to do is
look reassuring, confirm that the vote tallies look alright and,
once we have an official record of the result, ensure that the
individual voting data is destroyed to ensure privacy."  Doesn't
everyone have a ballot box at home? That sounded easy enough,
and the system had been tested so, when the election session
started, Daniel and I stood at the side of the hall, looking
relaxed and confident. As this was the first time that the
technology had been used in an ALDE election, the delegates were
invited to have a test vote, using historic political figures.
It didn't go well, with some keypads freezing, so it was back to
the technicians for some swift resetting before another attempt
- which did