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E-Voting

Will 7,000 e-voting machines become traffic cones?

The ill-fated machines could be deployed as traffic cones – or a €54m ‘golden fleece’ – after disposal.

THE 7,000 UNUSED electronic voting machines ordered by the government in 2002 could be melted down and turned into traffic cones, it has emerged.

Today’s Irish Independent reports that the €51m terminals – deployed as a trial in three constituencies in the 2002 election, but never since – will have to be shredded and recycled after the government admitted it was unable to find a buyer for them.

Disposing of the machines will add extra costs to the taxpayer, on top of the IR£40m spent on the machines and €3m on storage for the last eight years – with the costs of redeployment being anywhere between €175,000 and €210,000.

It is illegal for the government to dump the machines in landfill under EU rules – meaning the government will simply have to find alternate uses for them.

A manager from one electronic device disposal company told the paper that the materials in the machine could be deployed elsewhere – with traffic cones being one potential incarnation of the melted-down devices.

They could also be turned into ‘fleeces’ – though, with the total costs of the failed e-voting experiment reaching €54.2 million, it’d be fairer to call such a garmet a ‘golden fleece’.

With the National Roads Authority nearing the completion of its motorway construction scheme, the government would not have much use for a new hoard of traffic cones either.

At least there’s some good news – the company that spoke to the Independent, Asset Management Ireland, said it would be willing to submit a bid if the government issued a tender for the disposal of the machines.

The government yesterday admitted it would have to dispose of the machines, having had no significant offers to acquire them.

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