Irish voting system doubts

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday December 09, 2002 12:54 by Irish voting system doubts - Mrs K. Harris

Irish voting system doubts

MONDAY 09/12/2002 08:23:42
Irish voting system doubts
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?pt=n&id=26531

A report has highlighted security doubts over a state-of-the-art new automatic voting system used in an Irish general election for the first time earlier this year.

A confidential document submitted to the Dublin government earlier this year said the integrity of a ballot could not be guaranteed when the new electronic poll method is utilised.

The report - drafted for the Irish Environment and Local Government Department by an electronic security company - identified a number of vulnerabilities that could raise doubts over votes cast under the system.

Among other criticisms, it said electors could easily be duped into voting for the wrong candidates by simply taping a fake ballot over the front panel of the machine.

The findings were disputed, by a spokesman for the department, who said the machines and the ballot papers could not be tampered with as that was prevented by the presence at poll stations of voting officials. But the department agreed that attempts to interfere with the voting system could never be ruled out.

Push-button voting was used in three constituencies in last May`s Irish general election, and in seven areas in October`s referendum on the Treaty of Nice for European Union expansion.

It is due to be extended on a nationwide basis for the first time in local elections due in Ireland next year.

The system - which is already in use in other European states - is replacing a manual type of polling in the Irish Republic`s proportional representation electoral method that often led to the counting of votes lasting for several days.

The new set-up permits counts to be completed and declarations made within hours of the close of polls in an election or referendum.

Ireland`s Fine Gael parliamentary opposition party, said the new system should not be extended until its security could be guaranteed.

And Joe Higgins, the sole Irish Socialist Party representative in the Dublin parliament said electronic voting should be abandoned, claiming it could be open to ``radical manipulation.``