Four count centres should carry out spot checks and recounts to guarantee the integrity of electronic voting in all future elections, the Government has been told.
The call was made yesterday by Irish Citizens for Trustworthy E-Voting (ICTE), which is a lobby group comprising computer professionals that has argued strongly against the Government's plans.
Under the ICTE proposals, the count centres would do spot checks on paper ballots cast in two constituencies, along with recounts in two more, in all future general elections.
"Computer experts in Ireland and abroad have made escalating attempts to bring the weight of their opinions to bear on this issue," an ICTE member, Mr Adrian Coffey, wrote in a document released yesterday.
"We have been stonewalled at every turn as the Government, and Department of the Environment personnel simply refused to acknowledge the validity of any argument whose conclusion is at variance with their own determination to adopt the proposed system," he wrote.
Mr Joe McCarthy, a leading critic of the Government's plans, said electronic voting could not be challenged in the courts because the Dutch manufacturers will continue to own the highly complex programme.
The Dutch company was unlikely to appear in a court if the integrity of its system was threatened, said Mr McCarthy, who is a former member of the Progressive Democrats.
"The High Court could not subpoena the author of the programme because he is Dutch. That is a serious issue for us as a people," he declared.
Asked if he questioned the motives of the Department of the Environment, Mr McCarthy said: "I don't doubt their honesty, but I do doubt their competence."
Under the proposed system, returning officers would have almost no control over the counting of voters, Mr McCarthy claimed.
He questioned the ability of the Electronic Voting and Counting Commission, whose members were announced yesterday by the Government to inspect the system and report by May 1st.
Raising concerns about the security put in place by the Department, Mr Adrian Coffey said "non-authorised" people would be prevented from changing the system.
However, nothing had been done to guarantee that "authorised" personnel, such as polling station staff, would be stopped from interfering, he said.
