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

[Margaret McGaley]

Anyone want to add anything or be a contact? Also, any thoughts on 
timing it?

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(small changes included)

[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 personnel costs of 
running the system; these machines requires more people than the paper 
system does. Can the minister prove that this system is worth all that 
expense?"

[ENDS]

[Note for editors]

Irish Citizens for Trustworthy E-voting is an independent group of over 
one hundred concerned Citizens, IT & Security Practitioners, and Legal 
Professionals calling for the introduction of a Voter Verified Audit 
Trail with any E-voting system used in Ireland.

ICTE Website:
  http://evoting.cs.may.ie/

Archive of ICTE Press Releases:
  http://lists.stdlib.net/pipermail/e-voting_press/

contact (available for interview): Margaret McGaley
email: mmcgaley at cs.nuim.ie
phone: 087 755 4023