A computer expert has claimed that the scale of a Government test on the electronic voting system was inadequate after it was disclosed that 2,483 ballots were used in an exercise to compare manual and electronic counts.
Mr Joe McCarthy, who has made submissions to the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment and Local Government, said such a test did not reflect the scale or the complexity of the elections to be held in June.
A spokesman for the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said critics of the system were entitled to make their comments but he would not be drawn on the remarks. "We're now moving ahead to appoint a high-level commission to look at the accuracy of the Nedap Powervote system and we'll let them do their work," the spokesman said.
He said the Government would appoint the commission within days but he would not say who had been approached to take part in its work.
Mr Cullen's Department confirmed yesterday that it had conducted an exercise to compare a manual count with an electronic one in a single urban district council area.
In a statement, it said: "Votes from actual local election ballot papers were entered on a voting machine and counted electronically in the Buncrana UDC electoral area (total poll of 2,483).
"The results of these tests were compared to the actual count results for those elections, with both corresponding correctly." Mr McCarthy called last night for a more sophisticated test.
"Two thousand five hundred votes would represent about one-twentieth of a typical four- or five-seater constituency. So in terms of volume or complexity, it would not be representative of a Dáil constituency, and even less so of a European constituency, which would be 10 times bigger again," he said.
A test conducted on one sample poll in a single UDC area did not compare with the complexity of the actual poll at the European and local elections on June 11th.
"The Buncrana UDC voter will in due course be voting on the one machine for the Buncrana UDC, secondly for Donegal County Council and thirdly for a member of the European Parliament for North West. Therefore the complexity is three times greater."
Mr Cullen's Department also said yesterday the current procedures in relation to postal and special voting would remain.
"Postal voters will return their ballots, by post, to the returning officer. Special voters' ballot papers will be collected by the special presiding officer in the normal way," it said.
"Postal and special votes will be entered on a voting machine by election staff and this process will be overseen by election agents.
"The votes will be counted electronically together with the other votes cast electronically in that constituency."
