eVoting machines would cost €28 million to make useable - time to scrap them!

[SPN]

The Sunday Times is reporting that John Gormley is going to recommend to the Cabinet that the eVoting fiasco be brought to an end.

“I’ve always been sceptical about any future use of the system, but I have tried to take a prudent approach by exploring all possibilities. However, the scale of the further investment required, coupled with the extremely challenging financial position, means that there’s no realistic prospect of the machines being brought into service,” he said.

In the letter, written in response to a request by the parliamentary party for clarification of the long-running controversy, Gormley said electronic voting was a “legacy issue” for the Greens, who were not in government when the machines were bought.

His department said it would cost €14m to implement the recommendations of the Commission on Electronic Voting, the independent body that decided the machines were unusable without modification. It would cost a further €14m to add a verifiable, paper audit trail to the 7,500 machines, which Gormley considers “indispensable in terms of securing public confidence”. A paper trail would allow votes to be checked and ensure the choice people made on screen was correctly registered.

The minister also expresses concern about a court decision in Germany against electronic voting machines. This month, the country’s highest court found voting machines made by Nedap, the same company which made the Irish ones, breached election law by not allowing for votes to be checked properly. It dismissed voting machines in general as not being in keeping with the principle of fair elections.

[goosebump]

The Sunday Times is reporting that John Gormley is going to recommend to the Cabinet that the eVoting fiasco be brought to an end.

About time.

Fair play to Gormley.

[lostexpectation]

what took him a 1.5 years?

a 1.5 years too late.

[super pedestrian]

Now the question remains, what are we going to do with the machines? Just dump them?

[SPN]

what took him a year?

Politics!

Do you have any clue how these things work?

[Gruffalo]

It would nearly be worth the money just to be able to use them to vote FF out.

[Ah Well]

Now the question remains, what are we going to do with the machines? Just dump them?

Stick them under the M3 that's being ploughed thru the Tara region .... political folly being interred underneath a political folly ..... let it all for the archaeologists to find/ponder over/laugh about in centuries to come

[goosebump]

These machines represent one of most incompetent acts of any Irish Government Minister.

Martin Cullen should resign over this, as should several officials in the DEHLG. The contract was signed in the teeth of overwhelming evidence to suggest that the system was flawed, and against the recommendations of the Oireachtas Committee and the IT community across the State.

I also remember RTE'c Chief Political Nob Head, David McCullagh, doing a piece about the use of the machines in the Netherlands, in which he made a point of interviewing some old bat who said that people who didn't think the machines were safe were idiots.

[lostexpectation]

Politics!

Do you have any clue how these things work?

no give me an actual reason for the delay, who the ******************** wanted them? what he said above was true the day he entered office.

[goosebump]

no give me actual reason for the delay,who the ******************** wanted them? what he said above was true the day he entered office.

So why didn't he just do everything on his first day and then go off and retire?