Some 1.5 pages of the 11 page report to which the Deputy referred deal with the electronic voting and vote counting system being adopted here. My Department does not accept the conclusions drawn in the report, for detailed reasons which I will spell out.
It is the Government's intention that the electronic voting and vote counting system will be used in all local and European elections in June 2004 and detailed planning for this is being co-ordinated by my Department. Electronic voting is a desirable modernisation of our electoral procedures and public reaction to the use of voting machines in the pilot constituencies has been extremely positive. I am confident the new system will enhance rather than weaken the integrity and efficiency of the Irish electoral process. The cost of the system is approximately €36 million, plus VAT. As the system has an estimated life of 20 years, most of the cost will be recouped in greater efficiency and reduced staff costs over the life of the system.
My Department's reasons for rejecting the conclusions of the NUI Maynooth report are as follows. First, the report restates four points from a security assessment report which was commissioned by my Department in March 2002 on possible threats to the external physical features of the voting machine and before the system was used at the general election in May 2002. These points were considered by my Department before the use of the system and procedures were put in place to deal, where necessary, with the matters concerned. As indicated in reply to Priority Question No. 75 the authors of the original security assessment report have now indicated that they are satisfied that the action taken and procedures implemented in the use of the system meet any concerns expressed in their report.
Additional InformationSecond, the report questions a survey carried out by MRBI, on the basis that the questionnaire and report is not available. In fact the survey report was and is available, free of charge, from my Department. Third, the report comments adversely on the size and brightness of the preference number display. The preference number on the voting machine display has been increased in size and brightness, having regard to voters' comments in the pilot uses of the machine. Fourth, the authors of the report refer to the need for a voter to be able to amend his or her preferences. The factual position is that the voting machine allows a voter to change his or her preferences in private and in secret before pressing the cast vote button. The details of a preference recorded will also be displayed on the voting machine screen so that it can be viewed by the voter before the cast vote button is pressed.
Fifth, the report lays emphasis on a procedure promoted by an American writer on the need for a system to produce a paper ballot which would be retained in the voting machine and which could be used in a manual count later. This idea, while it may be suitable in other countries, would not be suitable here as it could endanger the secrecy of the ballot and moreover it would not be useful for a recheck on the electronic count result, due to the requirement to mix the votes before the count commences. However, our system will print a ballot paper for each vote if required by a court order in an election petition hearing. The printed ballot paper in such a case would have the details of the movement of the vote at different counts. Sixth, the report refers to the non-availability of the source code for the system especially the count source code. Making available of the source code raises important commercial and security issues and it is a matter under consideration in my Department.
This report does not raise any new issues concerning the security of the electronic system to be used and its conclusions cannot be considered to have been substantiated.
At the time the author received material from the Department. We did not hear from the author afterwards. The report went on the Internet by the tutor and my officials and I will be happy to meet at any time with this person if we can assist in any way.
