Skip to main content
Normal View

Electronic Voting.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 31 March 2004

Wednesday, 31 March 2004

Questions (203, 204)

Bernard Allen

Question:

203 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the response his Department made to the comments (details supplied) of the Zerflow report of 27 March 2002; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10127/04]

View answer

Bernard Allen

Question:

204 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if, as recommended in the Zerflow report of 27 March 2002, a third party audit was put in place to test the electronic voting system in the general election of May 2002; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10128/04]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 203 and 204 together.

In addition to the reports prepared by two international testing institutes on the voting machine, my Department also commissioned Zerflow Information Security in March 2002 to assess the possible threats to the external physical features of the voting machine in a polling station. The comments referred to in the question were part of the initial discussion between Zerflow personnel and my Department designed to inform Zerflow of the detailed electoral process.

Some recommendations made in the report were accepted by the Department and incorporated in instructions to returning officers, while others were assessed by the Department and the voting machine manufacturers as implausible in practice and that the probability of their occurrence without detection was extremely remote. All recommendations were again considered in the review of the voting machine after its initial use in 2002 and, together with user feedback, the Department introduced modifications to the voting machine including strengthening security aspects such as the provision of a lock on the voting machine front panel. As stated in its updated report of 4 July 2003, Zerflow has reviewed the changes made to the system and protocols and have stated that they "are satisfied that the recommendations of our previous report have been addressed and the voting machine is now secure".

While no third party audit was commissioned, the performance of the voting machine was carefully monitored by the returning officers and their staff in the pilot constituencies. In addition, voters' attitudes to the performance of the machine and voting procedures were assessed in an MRBI "exit" poll commissioned by my Department. This "exit" poll of voters at the May 2002 general election in the three pilot constituencies of Meath, Dublin North and Dublin West revealed a strong positive rating for the system with 94% of respondents finding the system easy to use and 87% of those polled actually preferred the use of voting machines to the paper ballot. Issues raised by voters such as the clarity of preference displays have been addressed and the improvements made should further enhance the user-friendliness of the voting machine.

Top
Share