E-voting: where they got it right

THE Taoiseach believes e-voting is a success, except for the software being faulty. That’s like saying the Government is a success, except for ministers being faulty.

Apparently Mr Ahern believes if the original software cost only €500,000, then the replacement software should cost the same.

However, the original software was written by one developer. The Taoiseach is now planning an international body of experts to oversee the redevelopment. No doubt they will be ably assisted by legions of consultants and advisers.

Do I detect the odour of PPARS in the air?

But instead of reinventing the wheel, why not use someone else’s solution?

Australian Capital Territory (ACT) also uses the single transferable vote as its electoral system. Because of doubts over the accuracy of the manual paper system, they introduced e-voting and counting in 2001.

ACT’s electoral commission reviewed e-voting and thoroughly tested their system before buying it. Our dopey Government, on the other hand, reviewed e-voting after buying it.

ACT didn’t completely computerise the voting system because the problem is with the counting, not the voting. Also, computerising every polling station would have been very expensive.

Instead only the larger polling stations have voting computers. And even in these stations, voters can choose between the computer and the paper ballot. Voters in the smaller stations stay with the paper ballot.

The electronic votes are then transferred over to the counting computer. All the paper ballots are also entered into this computer and all the votes are counted electronically, quickly and accurately.

What about the cost? Well, ACT spent the equivalent of almost €225,000 for €225,000 voters, or a euro per voter. In contrast we spent nearly €54 million for three million voters, or €18 per voter.

And of that €225,000 the software only cost €100,000 — a fifth of what it cost us, and ours doesn’t even work!

For those of you who can’t afford a trip to Australia, or are too conscientious to waste taxpayers’ money on a junket, you can read about ACT’s e-voting system at www.elections.act.gov.au/elecvote.html

Also on the same site, you can download the election software source code for free. That’s right — free. And our dodgy election software is a highly classified trade secret that we are not allowed to see.

Jason FitzHarris

Rivervalley

Swords

Co Dublin