Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting (ICTE)

ICTE was set up in June of 2003 to raise awareness about the danger posed by electronic voting. At the time, the Irish Government were planning to use the Nedap/Powervote electronic voting system countrywide this June (for the European and local elections).

Due to heavy opposition from ICTE, independent researchers and the opposition parties, the Government agreed to set up a commission to examine the "secrecy and accuracy" of the system. In their report (released on the 30th of April) the commission said that they were "unable to recommend the use of the proposed system at the local and European elections and, by extension, at the referendum due to be held on 11 June."

The Government has agreed not to use the system this June, so Ireland will be using paper ballots countrywide for the upcoming elections. However, they have not admitted the need for a Voter Verified Audit Trail (ICTE's central requirement) yet, so ICTE still has some work to do.

Margaret