The real scandal of vote machines

IN his letter (April 28), Peadar O Laoire could not be more wrong in his contention that “the real reason for dropping electronic voting was that it took the “fun” out of elections”.

The waste of €55m of taxpayers’ money did indeed constitute a scandal.

The real scandal, however, is not the decision to purchase but the decision deliberately to exclude a voter-verified paper printout from the evoting machines.

This resulted in the alarming truth that it could not be verified if the votes counted were the votes cast. The real reason for dropping the machines, therefore, is that they could be used to nobble our electoral system. This fact was confirmed by the report of the Government’s own commission. Unless and until that was remedied, those with access to the machines could write the result of any future election and no one would ever know. Contrary to Mr O Laoire’s opinion, this flaw dwarfs the shortcomings of the paper voting method.

Anthony Leavy

Shielmartin Drive

Sutton

Dublin 13