Funferal

At What Cost? Briefing paper

‘At What Cost?‘ is a campaign against the introduction of electronic voting in Ireland. We make use of the opportunities provided by the internet to raise awareness of the issue and to provide tools and information that enable individuals to campaign on a local level.[You can download a PDF version of this file.]Our goals are to:

• raise awareness of electronic voting, and the serious issues associated with it, amongst the public
• provide resources online to support campaign activities and encourage and facilitate local action on this issue
• co-ordinate mass action protesting electronic voting

Voting is central to our democratic structures. Because of this, the concerns raised by computer scientists and others in relation to the need for a paper audit trail (omitted in the system being adopted in Ireland) must be taken seriously – instead of being dismissed out of hand as the government appears to be doing. Additionally, there are dangers in adopting any system that will necessarily be dominated by experts, forcing lay persons to leave oversight of this democratic institution in the hands of experts. Finally, we are concerned that the huge investment being made (it will take at least 15 years before electronic voting saves money relative to the manual system currently used) is responsible for the lack of systematic attention being paid to issues of usability.CONTACT DETAILS AND UPDATESThe campaign PRO is Paul Whelan. He is available for press and broadcast interviews. He may also be able to put you in touch with local members of the campaign. Contact him by email (pmwhelan@ireland.com) or telephone (087-9318415) with queries. Other campaign organisers are listed here.At What Cost will be issuing regular press updates. If you want to ensure that you receive these, let us know.Members of the public who want to support the campaign, or who merely want to be informed of developments should register on the website.[Download the PDF version of this file.]