Electronic voting? SOMEBODY HAD better tell the nation that electronic voter technology will not be used in the next general election. That is the prospect, judging from the latest developments reported out of the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ). If Jamaica is to use this one-of-a-kind technology, where an elector is identified by fingerprint, which then produces biographic data on a computer screen, ratifies that with a photograph, and then produces a ballot, the EOJ will have to undertake a whirlwind training programme of electoral officers. For that whirlwind to blow, funds must be in place and training already started. However, if as Sunday's Gleaner reported, Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) chairman Professor Errol Miller is at this stage seeking funds to underwrite the cost of training, then electronic balloting in the next General Election, due by latest March 2003, seems a remote possibility. How can this happen if the Government has allocated only $6 million out of a requested budget of $96 million to the EOJ. Additionally, the EOJ has 300,000 identification cards to deliver at a cost of $20 million. They are still at the office. It goes without saying that if you cannot find the money to train the people, then you will not have it to pay for full-scale technology which is being offered at well over US$15 million. It is well established that electoral problems are concentrated in about 15 of the 60 constituencies. In those 15, problems are more severe in some than others. And it is these constituencies that taxpayers are being asked to pay for technology to stop the skulduggery that has put both parties in power at different times. Both major parties have reportedly agreed on the new technology; but nobody in authority is prepared to disclose the high cost of that technology. The public has a right to know what its tax dollars are buying. The rising tensions of campaigning should not have to be borne in a vacuum. The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
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