Irish rush to electronic voting causes unease
By David McKittrick, Ireland Correspondent
26 February 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=495146
The Independent
A fierce political battle has broken out in Dublin because the government is
pressing ahead with a new electronic voting system despite protests from the
leading Irish opposition parties.
The government has bought more than 6,000 electronic voting machines for
this June's European and local council elections, in a move to revolutionise
Irish voting. The cost is nearly EUR40m (£26m).
But the fact that the machines will leave no verifiable paper trail has
provokedobjections from political and media circles, as well as from some
electoral experts.
There will be no Florida-style hanging chads in the new system but the fact
that the results will be collated electronically has unsettled those who
worry computers can make errors or be tampered with. "Even Nasa's programmes
make mistakes," said one critic.
The government argues that the machines have been piloted and tested in the
Irish Republic and elsewhere. One minister claimed: "The system will be the
most accurate and, therefore, the most democratic we have ever had."
But the Labour party leader Pat Rabbitte, criticised the Irish Prime
Minister Bertie Ahern's party saying: "When it comes to counting the votes,
I don't trust Fianna Fail."
The government says the time has come to modernise a voting system which,
under the proportional representation system, takes several days to return a
result. In some constituencies where recounts have been required, counting
has taken up to a week.
In many circles those protracted proceedings are regarded as an important
part of political ritual and ceremony.
Any element of suspense or drama seems certain to disappear with e-voting,
which delivers results within minutes.
The government has promised to set up, in the next few days, a panel of
"people of the highest repute" to check the system's accuracy and secrecy.
But Mr Ahern is adamant that an auditable paper trail cannot be built into
the new system. "We are not going to go back to pushing pieces of paper
around the place," he said, accusing a critic of wanting "to keep old ways,
old things, the old nonsensical past".
The opposition parties have joined forces in a rare display of unity to
oppose the plans, and have scored a point against the government.
E-voting has been a prospect for some years, and was piloted successfully in
the previous general election. The present system is regarded as slow but
reliable and transparent, and in no urgent need of reform.
The government is vulnerable to criticism of not having held sufficient
consultation.
The opposition says the government should not have pushed ahead on such a
basic and important issue without the consent of opposition parties.
Eamon Gilmore, the Labour environment spokesman, said: "The government has
arrogantly chosen to ignore the overwhelming weight of expert opinion which
has warned that the system to be used is unreliable and unsafe.
"The government has also chosen to make a fundamental change to our
electoral system without the consent of the opposition parties - a move
virtually unprecedented in a modern democracy."
Ministers have brushed aside the complaints that democratic fundamentals are
being arbitrarily changed. One said: "This is an insidious, unworthy,
diabolical and appalling attempt to create doubt where there was no doubt."
The new panel will examine the merits of the opposition claim that the
system is "suspicious, expensive, unworkable and not verifiable."
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