E-voting pilot scheme approved for Dublin, Meath

Meath, Dublin North and Dublin West have been chosen as the pilot constituencies for the Government’s planned introduction of electronic voting.

The Minister for the Environment and Local Government said that, subject to the testing of software, the voters in these areas will be able to cast their ballots in the forthcoming general election should they wish.

Mr Dempsey, Fianna Fáil TD for Meath, said the use of e-voting would greatly speed up the counting process.

"Results for the constituencies are likely to be available within half an hour of the final module, on which the cast votes are stored, being delivered to the counting centres," he said.

He added that an intensive public information campaign would highlight the new procedure.

The system to be used, which was developed by a Dutch firm, has already been used in elections in the Netherlands and in Germany.