Electronic voting in Ireland
The electronic voting system purchased for use in Ireland is produced by a conglomerate called Nedap/Powervote . The plan was to use the system nationwide in the June elections.
The system does not include a Voter Verified Audit Trail (VVAT). Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting (ICTE) is a group of ordinary citizens who believe that no electronic voting system can be trustworthy unless it includes a paper-based VVAT. We share this view with:
- The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- The Irish Computer Society (ICS)
- Dr Rebecca Mercuri
- Dr David Dill
- Bruce Schneier
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
We believe that the current system (without VVAT) poses a genuine threat to our democracy. Therefore we are calling on the Government to halt the introduction of electronic voting until the system is modified to include VVAT.
We endorse the European resolution on electronic voting (hosted by the free e-democracy project) as well as the more US focussed resolution put forward by David Dill, Professor of Computer Science at Standford University.
Press Releases
All our previous press releases are available to download. You can also join the press mailing list to receive future press releases.
Quote of the month (July) -- The Commission on Electronic Voting
"Based on the results of its work to date in relation to technical, procedural and comparative aspects of the chosen system, and recognising that the chosen system can potentially enhance and deliver real efficiencies in the administration of elections in Ireland (as demonstrated by systems based on the same design and used elsewhere for some years), the Commission concludes that it can recommend the voting and counting equipment for use at elections in Ireland, subject to further work it has also recommended, but that it is unable to recommend the election management software for such use."