A major public awareness campaign is being prepared for electronic voting, which will replace the manual ballot in every constituency at the local and European elections next year, writes Marie O'Halloran.
Meanwhile, a computer scientist has warned that electronic voting cannot be trusted by the electorate unless they see a paper version of their vote.
Despite Government assurances that the €45 million Nedap/Powervote system it has purchased will enhance voting integrity, Ms Margaret McGaley of NUI Maynooth maintains that in its current form it "threatens the integrity of our democracy", "is open to abuse" and has been "incompetently addressed by the Government".
Unless there is a "voter verified audit trail" [paper ballot\], the electorate should not trust electronic voting, said Ms McGaley who prepared a report on the system. However, both the Government and Nedap/Powervote reject the report.
Mr Ron Loudon, director of Powervote Ltd, said the paper audit trail is "in many ways a step back" with the possibility that somebody "for malicious reasons could say that's not what I voted" once they saw the paper ballot.
The Nedap/Powervote system "has some considerable pedigree", he said. It has been in place for the past 15 years in the Netherlands "and there has never, ever been even one challenge". He said the Dutch government was constantly reviewing its electoral system and had not found a better one. It is also in place in a number of regional governments in Germany.
Echoing the computer company, the Department of Environment, which is spearheading the awareness campaign, believes that the key to its success is in generating trust. Official sources said: "The more information there is available for the public the more confidence people will have in the system."
Part of that trust-building includes a €1.5 million public relations campaign and the creation of an Internet website which will give the full specifications of the system. This will include an "architecture and code review", and general information about the system and its use. It is likely to be in place in October.
Friday is the deadline for PR companies to tender for the e-campaign. A decision is expected by mid- or late-September and the awareness campaign is likely to start in February or March next.
In rejecting the report, completed as an undergraduate thesis, the Minister of State for Environment, Mr Pat "The Cope" Gallagher, told the Dáil last month that producing a paper ballot "could endanger the secrecy of the ballot", but that the system "will print a ballot paper for each vote if required by a court order".
However, Ms McGaley said: "People have a tendency to trust computers and that is why electronic voting is being introduced. But the electronic voting system is much more important than your own PC but it is just as likely to break down as your PC."
The computer scientist, who is to undertake postgraduate research in electronic voting, said that in a paper ballot the machine "prints out a ballot and this assures the voter that the vote is recorded correctly".
Sources in the Department of Environment, suggest however, that if they were going to have a paper ballot with the electronic vote, there would be "no point in doing it at all".
The Minister told the Dáil the idea of a paper ballot with electronic voting "could endanger the secrecy of the ballot". However, Ms McGaley said the voter could not take the paper from the polling station. It would be put in a ballot box and could be used if a vote was challenged or as part of random checks.
There is a belief that electronic voting is more accurate because it eliminates human error, "but if the human error is in the design of the machine or the software, you won't necessarily know", said Ms McGaley.
However, Mr Loudon said the integrity of the system, which had been verified, was "sealed and tamperproof".