ANALYSIS:The e-voting episode reflects badly on Noel Dempsey, Martin Cullen and Bertie Ahern, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
JOHN GORMLEY’S decision to abandon plans to introduce electronic voting in Ireland has brought a 10-year saga, which has cost the taxpayer over €50 million, to an ignominious end.
The episode reflected badly on two ministers for the environment and former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who were strong advocates of the voting system which has finally been scrapped by Green Party leader and current Minister for the Environment John Gormley.
Even on his last day in office just a year ago, Ahern robustly defended the electronic voting system against criticism from Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore, who made a jocose reference to the then taoiseach’s desire to get ride of the “peann luaidhe” (pencil) and paper system of voting.
“Since it is my last question as taoiseach, it is only fair I should give Deputy Gilmore my best answer and best advice. My best advice is that since he could not beat me with the peann luaidhe, he should go to the old machines because he would have a far better chance with them.”
The e-voting scheme was the brainchild of Noel Dempsey who, as minister for the environment in 1999, commissioned research into the counting of ballot papers in the European and local elections of that year to establish if a switch to electronic voting was feasible.
The conclusion from that study was that a change from the manual voting system was possible and desirable, and the government announced on February 11th, 2000, that it had agreed in principle to the introduction of electronic voting and counting.
There was an allocation of €500,000 in the budget of December 2000 for the first phase of the programme, with the Electoral Amendment Act, 2001, putting it on a legislative basis.
Dempsey announced in February 2002 that electronic voting would take place on a pilot basis in three constituencies in the general election which was due a few months later.
Voters in Dublin North, Dublin West and Meath duly used the voting machines in the general election which took place on May 20th that year.
There was no serious opposition in the Dáil to the electronic voting pilot scheme.
Most of the comment in the wake of the 2002 election related to the impact of the immediate announcement of the final result on the night of the election, with all seats being filled at the same time.
One of the abiding images of that election was the distress of Nora Owen, a former minister for justice, who was clearly shocked at the way she lost her seat without the normal warnings that arises during the manual count process.
Much of the discussion after the election was if electronic voting could be modified so that individual counts could be announced at intervals rather than having the final result sprung on candidates.
With the pilot e-voting scheme widely regarded as a success, Dempsey’s successor as minister for the environment, Martin Cullen, proceeded to announce on October 30th, 2002, that electronic voting would feature
in all electoral areas for the European and local elections of 2004. The Department of the Environment awarded a contract to Dutch firm Nedap, which had been involved in the pilot project, and the machines were bought at a cost of €51 million.
However, a grassroots campaign against the abandonment of the manual voting system and the traditional long count developed.
More importantly, computer expert Joe McCarthy raised a series of concerns about the security of the voting machines and the fact that there would be no paper verification of the result.
Eamon Gilmore, then Labour spokesman on the environment, took up the cudgels and the opposition parties began to put strong pressure on Cullen to explain how these concerns could be met.
In response, the Government established the commission on electronic voting to examine the secrecy and accuracy of the system.
The commission, chaired by Mr Justice Matthew P Smith, reported in April 2004 that it was unable to verify the accuracy and secrecy of the proposed system in the available time frame.
As a result, the government deferred the planned introduction of electronic voting in the local and European elections of June 2004.
The opposition parties tried to make capital out of the waste of €51 million on the voting machines.
It then emerged that it was costing €800,000 a year to store them. The commission issued its second and final report in July 2006, suggesting that electronic voting was feasible if the voting machines were modified and the software updated to ensure their security.
Defending the electronic voting system in the Dáil in October 2006, Ahern expressed the view that with some modifications to protect the security of the system it could still be implemented. “Otherwise, this country will move into the 21st century being a laughing stock with our stupid, old pencils.”
However, confidence in the system was further eroded at that time when a group of Dutch computer hackers showed how machines similar to the ones purchased by Ireland could be tampered with.
There was no attempt to update the Irish machines for use in the 2007 general election, and Gormley has now announced that a process will be put in place with the supplier to dispose of the voting and counting equipment and terminate the storage arrangements.
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