Electronic voting gets red card from tallymen

It is rare that a group of political die-hards would almost take pleasure in the government’s botched attempt to introduce electronic voting.
While former Environment Minister Noel Dempsey was subjected to scathing criticism over his failed attempt to roll out electronic voting at a staggering cost of €50 million, a cross-party group of political analysts the length of the country breathed a collective sigh of relief.
You see, tallymen are a breed apart. From the minute the 179 boxes were opened in the West County Hotel, Ennis, on Saturday, the sense of anticipation and excitement was palpable.
The first unofficial indication of a dramatic change in Clare’s political landscape was provided by 30 Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael stalwarts who diligently recorded the first-preference votes for all the 16 candidates in a joint tally.
A new seat for Labour in Clare for the first time since 1992, the dramatic collapse in Fianna Fáil’s overall share of the votes, leaving them with a battle to win just one seat as well as the re-election of Fine Gael deputies Pat Breen and Joe Carey was signalled by the tallymen around lunchtime, hours before returning officer Pat Wallace announced details of the first count.
Tally co-ordinator Michael Neylon, who has been involved in this “political bloodsport” since 1977 when his beloved Fianna Fáil swept to a landslide general election victory, believes electronic voting would remove the essential elements of drama, fun and excitement from election count centres.
The Ennis resident argues the country can afford to pay local authority staff and other employees a day’s wages once every five years to avoid the “unnecessary” introduction of machines.
While tally predictions normally have a 2% margin of error, Mr Neylon stressed early on that the discrepancy in 2011 figures would probably be greater because of the provision of two columns in the ballot paper, the large number of candidates and the addition of another less experienced tally group supporting Independent candidate James Breen.
This was the third time that former Ennis Town Councillor Ann Arthur-O’Brien kept a tally of first preferences, having completed this task in the 2009 European and the 2007 general election.
Growing up in a staunch Fianna Fáil family, she was one of the three women elected, including Anna Mulqueen (Fine Gael) and Tras Honan (Fianna Fáil) on the town council in 1985 and remained there until 1994.
While all her family were passionate Fianna Fáil supporters, she was the only one who became a public representative.
Interestingly, the Gort Road resident lived outside the town boundary and couldn’t vote for herself. In 1999, she tried to secure a nomination to contest the Clare County Council elections in the Ennis area but was pipped by the late Frank Flaherty, who failed in his bid to win a seat, unlike Pat Daly and Peter Considine, who were elected to the local authority.
She served as an officer in a number of positions at the Ennis Comhairle Ceanntair and the Comhairle Dáil Ceanntair and also chaired a forum designed to increase the number of women in politics for five years.
While she understands why some people want to see quotas introduced to dramatically increase the low percentage of women involved in politics at all levels, she doesn’t favour this measure, as she believes females don’t deserve special treatment because of the gender.
“When I was on Ennis Town Council, I often got a phone call at 7am in the morning up to midnight. It is not easy to juggle the demands of being a public representative with family life, particularly if you have children.
“I would like to see a lot more women in Dáil Éireann but I understand the difficulties that are hindering the entry of women. This needs to be tackled in the context of overall Dáil reform.
“I can understand the need for progress when it came to electronic voting but personally, I like the old-fashioned system, it has a lot more fun and excitement,” she said.
Describing the three 2011 Balance the Ballot candidates, Madeleine McAleer, Sarah Ferrigan and Ann Cronin, as very capable ladies, she argues that any candidate needs to publicly declare their intentions to contest an election at least six months in advance of the poll to maximise their election chances.
Fine Gael activist Gerard Lynch, who has been involved in compiling tallies since the 1977 General Election, stressed the attempted introduction of electronic voting without a paper audit trail was deeply flawed.
He said transparency was vital for any new voting system and there had to be a link with the paper vote. He said he couldn’t understand how Deputy Dempsey could spend €50 million on electronic voting and another estimated €1 million on the storage of idle computers.