A litany of empty promises on ‘secure and reliable’ e-voting

THE latest problems with the €52 million e-voting system make a mockery of previous Government insistences that it was secure and reliable.

The Government first used e-voting on a pilot basis in three constituencies in the May 2002 general election, and in seven constituencies in the second Nice referendum of October that year. It planned to roll out the system fully for the local and European elections in 2004.

Between 2003 and early 2004, the Government repeatedly dismissed opposition concerns about the system. The then Environment Minister, Martin Cullen, whose department had responsibility for e-voting, was the most trenchant in his dismissals.