An electronic voting Bill published by the Coalition Government has angered and dismayed the opposition parties and failed to respond to the technical concerns of computer experts.
There has been no concession on the provision of a paper audit trail, against which a result could be checked and the source code used by the system has not been made available for expert scrutiny.
Rather than address the serious objections and reservations that have been raised in relation to the use of this particular system of electronic voting, the Government has chosen to accuse its opponents of troublemaking and scaremongering. And while an element of political opportunism may indeed be reflected in the attitude of some opposition parties, the issues are far too important to be dismissed in such a fashion. Many computer experts are emphatically opposed to a system that does not contain a separate audit trail.
Public confidence in the reliability of the voting system is the bedrock of our democracy. Anything that damages that trust or contributes to the alienation of the electorate must be avoided. And while a formal Government decision has not yet been taken to utilise the system in the local and European elections next June, that is the clear intention of the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Cullen.
The alacrity of the Government on this particular issue is unseemly. The new Bill is due to become law by mid-April, even though an independent panel of experts appointed by the Government to advise on the secrecy and accuracy of the system will not report until May. The timing of these events could send the wrong signal.
The Labour Party has maintained the Bill is unconstitutional on the grounds that the Minister is permitted to introduce and vary the legislation by way of order or regulation. It has also expressed concern over the discretionary power of returning officers to release detailed information on votes cast, without establishing a threshold to protect the anonymity of voters in thinly populated districts.
Last month Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Green Party came together to raise serious questions about the safeguards and reliability of the system being proposed and to demand the inclusion of an audit mechanism. They were rebuffed.
Why the rush to introduce the new system? Surely it is better to err on the side of caution and protect public confidence, rather than risk disillusionment if a flaw develops in the electronic process. And if it requires extra expenditure to provide a separate papertrail, so be it.