[E-voting] press release draft: WHERE'S THE COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS?

[Margaret McGaley]

[not for release]

WHERE'S THE COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS?

Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting (ICTE) is calling on Minister 
Roche to justify his intention to spend more money on the chosen 
electronic voting system. "It has been reported today that the minister 
will be seeking the advice of international experts on changes to the 
count software. But what about the other changes called for by the 
commission?" said Margaret McGaley of ICTE.

"Investments of millions of euros must be justified by the benefits they 
will bring. We predict that just buying enough machines to make this 
system viable will cost 35 million euro. By the time you add the cost of 
the changes called for by the CEV's report, the future cost of this 
system will be at least 50 million on top of the almost 60 million 
already spent. And that doesn't even include the personel costs of 
running the system, which requires more people than the paper system 
does. Can the minister prove that this system is worth all that expense?"