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Electronic voting in the Republic of Ireland

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In the year 2004, the Irish government undertook plans to introduce a nationwide electronic voting system for the local and European Parliament elections. The proposed change was under the supervision of Martin Cullen, the former Minister for the Environment & Local Government in Ireland.

In March 2004 the Government of Ireland established the Independent Commission on Electronic Voting and Counting at Elections to examine the proposed system.[1] It was dissolved in 2006.

The Commission issued a series of reports reviewing the proposed system and comparing it to the existing electoral system.[2]:

The Commission can recommend the voting and counting equipment as follows:

  • The voting machine and related hardware components are of good quality and their design, which is based on voting systems that have been reliable in use elsewhere for some years, has also remained stable since their adaptation for use in Ireland. Subject to some minor security and usability enhancements, followed by extended and rigorous testing once they have been so modified, the voting machine and related components can be confidently recommended for use.
  • The embedded software of the voting machine is also of adequate quality, requiring only minor modifications followed by further analysis to confirm its reliability.

The government has spent €52 million on electronic voting machines and spends €800,000 per annum to store the machines.[2] The prime issue is the lack of verifiability by the absence of an audit mechanism or paper trail. The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has defended the flawed system in the Dáil, bemoaning the use of stupid old pencils [3].

The voting machines bought by the Government from Dutch firm Nedap are in storage as the cabinet ponders what to do after the Commission on Electronic Voting said it could not recommend the system. Approximately €0.5m is expected to be spent improving the software. Ahern has defended the system despite public scepticism and opposition from within his own party[4] on the basis that having spent the money, it would cause loss of national pride if the system were scrapped.

In October 2006, a group of Dutch hackers, including Rop Gonggrijp, showed how similar machines to the ones purchased in Ireland could be modified by replacing the E-proms with Nedap -Firmware with E-proms with their own firmware.[5]

On 23 April, 2009,Minister for the enviornment Mr John Gormley announced that the electronic voting system was to be scrapped by an as of yet undetermined method, due to cost and the public's satisfaction with the current system.[6]

References

  1. ^ Independent Commission on Electronic Voting and Counting at Elections
  2. ^ a b Second Report of the Commission on Electronic Voting on the Secrecy, Accuracy and Testing of the Chosen Electronic Voting System, 2004
  3. ^ Dáil Éireann - Volume 625 - 17 October, 2006
  4. ^ Scrap €52m e-voting system, says councillor.
  5. ^ Nedap/Groenendaal ES3B voting computer, a security analysis
  6. ^ RTÉ News - Electronic voting system to be scrapped (23/04/2009)

See also

External links

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