Electronic voting to be extended for Nice ballot

More than 500,000 people in seven constituencies will cast their votes electronically in the second Nice Treaty referendum to be held this autumn.

An extension in the number of constituencies using electronic voting was announced today by the Minister of the Environment and Local Government, Mr Martin Cullen.

The four new constituencies - Dublin mid-west, Dublin south, Dublin south west and Dun Laoighre - will join the three constituencies where electronic voting was used in the last general election: Dublin north, Dublin west and Meath.

Mr Cullen said an information campaign on how to operate the machines will be run in the four constituencies before the referendum.

The Department of Local Government is reviewing the electronic voting and counting system used in the general election pending a decision to extend the system to all constituencies for the 2004 local and European Elections.

Mr Cullen said the electronic system should be joined with more traditional methods. "I believe every count centre should have a large screen where the results of each count are shown. This enables everyone involved - candidates, voters and the media to see the results clearly, who is elected, who is eliminated, where transfers are going and the trends emerging".

The results from the three constituencies using electronic voting were known a few hours after the general election polls closed.

The introduction of electronic voting removes the option for voters to "spoil" their votes. The former Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, who introduced electronic voting, said voters do not have a constitutional right to spoil their ballot.