mediajunk

I'm a relatively early adopter when it comes to new technologies, particularly any that have an "e" prefix. So I'm all for the Irish Government's plan to implement a nationwide e-voting system in June's European and Local elections, right? Wrong. I can't understand why the Government is hell-bent on rolling out this system. Is it to make Ireland look "progressive"; to enhance the country's brand as a "digital hub"; or to save their own faces? The principle argument put forward in favour of electronic voting here is that there is a huge number of deliberately spoiled votes under the current ballot box system, which an electronic system (of standalone machines at polling centres) would prevent. So we're told. But in a letter to yesterday's Irish Times, Barry Doyle writes: "I have acted as a deputy returning officer in a number of general election counts and one of the duties is to rule on spoiled votes. In general, these would be no more than one per cent of the total poll. Most are spoiled by accident. ... Deliberate spoiling occurs in only 2 or 3 per cent of all spoiled votes. This spoiling is usually by way of suggestion to individual candidates or parties or indeed the Queen of England that they attempt an act of self abuse which would require a degree of acrobatic dexterity or imagination which is clearly beyond their competence." Having listened to various politicians trying to justify the introduction of e-voting, I have become convinced that the emperor has, in fact, no clothes. To say our leading politicians are ignorant of the basic fundamentals of the inner workings of any sort of computer is an understatement. Indeed, I heard one minister on Vincent Browne's radio show argue that the system was not computer-based, since these are voting machines, and therefore NOT computers. (Blink, blink. Oookaaaaaay.) The typical debate goes like this: "And what if something goes wrong with these machines?" "It won't." "How do you know?" "Because experts have told us so." "But many independent experts disagree." "Stop being mischievous. You are simply trying to erode public confidence." "Can't we at least implement a system that gives us a printed receipt of our votes?" "No." "Why not?" "Because they don't do that in other countries." "So what?" "Well, anyway, the printers would be less reliable than the comp -- uh, voting machines." Hilarious as these debates are, democracy is the foundation of our society. For most citizens, voting is their only way of directly participating in that democracy. Any changes to our current system should only be made with the approval of Irish citizens. Let's have a referendum -- using paper -- to see if that approval exists. I am not in principle against electronic voting. I just want a system I can trust.