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Ireland and EU

Politics.ie - Thursday, February 19 2004
Government leaves behind consensus on electronic voting - ICTE

Ireland On-Line Headlines - 19/02/2004
Opposition motion on electronic voting defeated in Dáil

The Government has defeated an opposition motion calling for electronic voting to be deferred until an independent electoral commission has been established to oversee it.

The motion tabled by Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Green Party was defeated by 59 votes to 55.

Speaking for the Government, Junior Minister Pat "the Cope" Gallagher accused the opposition of trying to cast a shadow over a perfectly good system.

He also said he believed the public was happy with the electronic voting system, despite the absence of a paper trail to verify results.

Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting (ICTE) [will add to sidebar]

In 2002, the Irish government began the introduction of the Nedap/Powervote system, for electronic voting in the Republic of Ireland. We believe that this system poses a threat to our democracy.

Mailing list for ICTE

free e-democracy project Resolution on voter verifiable e-voting

Electronic voting is being rushed upon voters around the world with little regard for the risks and the costs to our democracies. In Europe, the UK and Denmark are holding e-voting trials as part of the 2004 European elections. France, Spain and Ireland have also held trials. E-voting is already established in Belgium and Switzerland. The European Commission is looking at introducing e-voting across the EU, and the Council of Europe is developing guidelines for elections involving e-voting.

We feel that voters and candidates must be able to feel certain that voting intentions are accurately recorded. If any doubts do arise then all stakeholders must be able to verify and audit all aspects of the election.

Editor's note: I personally am opposed to all technological voting. A paper ballot is self-validating.