Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 April 2004
794 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the formulae or criteria used to decide the number of electronic voting machines to assign to each polling station; the number of voting machines used per voter in the constituencies in which they were used in the General Election 2002; and the number of voting machines expected to be used per voter on the 11 June 2004 polling day. [11471/04]
View answer824 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of electronic voting machines being made available to each county and city council area; the number of backup machines also being made available in the event of a breakdown or malfunction of the voting machines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11873/04]
View answer827 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 544 of 16 December 2003 the exact number of electronic voting machines to be used in each count centre; the procedure for a local authority to make a polling scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11966/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 794, 824 and 827 together.
It is a matter for each returning officer to assign voting machines to polling stations having regard to the number of electors assigned to each station. The number of voting machines acquired by the returning officers in the three constituencies at the general election was 600 for the electorate of 231,734. The total number of voting machines acquired or being acquired by returning officers in preparation for the June 2004 elections is 7,315 for an electorate of 2,983,178. A breakdown per returning officer is set out in the following table. It is estimated that between 5% and 10% of machines will be available as spare machines.
The procedure for making a polling scheme is set out in Part IV of the Electoral Act 1992 and the Electoral (Polling Schemes) Regulations 1964.
|
Dáil Constituency * |
Number of Voting Machines |
|
Carlow/Kilkenny |
250 |
|
Cavan/Monaghan |
288 |
|
Clare |
200 |
|
Cork County (3) |
425 |
|
Cork City (2) |
410 |
|
Donegal North-East/South West |
295 |
|
Dublin City (6) |
777 |
|
Dublin County (6) |
775 |
|
Galway East/West |
310 |
|
Kerry North/South |
310 |
|
Kildare North/South |
275 |
|
Laois/Offaly |
220 |
|
Limerick East/West |
335 |
|
Longford/Roscommon |
232 |
|
Louth |
180 |
|
Mayo |
275 |
|
Meath |
265 |
|
Sligo/Leitrim |
230 |
|
Tipperary North/South |
408 |
|
Waterford |
195 |
|
Westmeath |
175 |
|
Wexford |
240 |
|
Wicklow |
245 |
|
Total |
7,315 |
*Voting machines are acquired by Dáil Returning Officers who also act as Returning Officers at other elections and referendums.
795 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if the electronic voting machines which have five columns of 18 buttons will be useable on 11 June 2004 in a town council area, in which four columns will be required for three elections and a referendum, if two of the elections have more than 18 candidates and therefore require extra columns; and if his attention has been drawn to the fact that in the 1999 local elections in Clonmel there were 17 candidates for the county council election and 23 candidates for the borough council election, indicating that the scenario is not unlikely. [11472/04]
View answerIn designing the layout of the voting machine, my Department considered the statistics for recent elections and concluded that the scenario suggested is unlikely to occur on a widespread basis and that sufficient spare voting machines are available to cope with such a situation, if it does occur.
