[E-voting] E-voting machines to be used in 2009 despite warnings

[Aengus Lawlor]

On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 10:59 AM [EDT],
Aengus Lawlor <aengusl at eircom.net> wrote:

>... If FF are
> in power after the next election, he'll ram the project through
> whatever committee is supposed to deal with the issue (just as Cullen
> did). He might spend a million or two on cosmetic changes to muddy
> the waters and win over public opinion (they won't know how effective
> or otherwise such changes are), but as far as he is concerned, the
> machines are a perfectly acceptable solution today,

And a quote from todays Order of Business:
The Taoiseach:    "We have to correct the software, which will cost €500,000 
and try to move forward. Otherwise, this country will move into the 21st 
century being a laughing stock with our stupid old pencils".

I guess I was wrong - they don't think they'll even need to spend "a million 
or two".

Unfortunately, if the opposition insist on going on about the "wasted" 52 
million, instead of the threat to the integrity and secrecy of Irish 
elections, they'll hand FF a victory, not just on this issue, but in the 
General election too. It's easy for FF to "save" the wasted money, if the 
public think that that's the problem. It'll be far harder for them to 
protect the integrity of the eections, if the pubic can be convinced that 
that's what is really at stake here. They've had a couple of years to break 
FFs back on this issue, but they're still recycling the same old sound 
bites, and they clearly haven't done a whit of new research into the issue.

Aengus