E voting machines to be destroyed

mike65

Finally.

Seems they can't find anything else to do with them.

Het-Field

Well they are still sucking thousands and thousands of euros from the state's coffers to keep them stored ina warehouse in Westmeath.

Another white elephant spearheaded by Martin Cullen !

mike65

Nope he got landed with that one! Noel Dempsey had that bright idea.

peasant

nope, not destroyed ...not quite yet.

Somebody else still has to make some more money out of this debacle :mad:

Environment Minister John Gormley said a task force is being set up to oversee the disposal of the voting and counting equipment and the end of storage arrangements.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0423/evoting.html

They need a "task force" even to fill a skip

bcirl03

More waste by the Fianna Fail muppets!

And to make matters worse it's taken them this long to decide they are dumping them.

gandalf

Aww but this time its a Green Party muppet fronting it

jprender

Surely the Govt had signed lease agreements for the storage space on some of these units.

Even if the machines are destroyed, I would bet that they will be paying the storage costs for some time yet (depending on length of lease agreement).

Nodin

mike65 wrote: »

Finally.

Seems they can't find anything else to do with them.

Make them into 80's arcade machines. Youngsters can experience life as it was then, with a major smouldering away on the side, as some gouger sticks his head in front of ye and says 'Give us your last man, mistur' or 'giveus two bob'.....

peter1892

Ah well, at least I got to use them once!

johnl

I would quite like one of these machines

ixoy

jprender wrote: »

Even if the machines are destroyed, I would bet that they will be paying the storage costs for some time yet (depending on length of lease agreement).

And it was reported in the Sunday Times that some of those leases may be invalid as well as one of the buildings is only meant to be used to store farm machinery. Ah the Government - they can't even get it right when they're trying to rectify their own mistakes.

bcirl03

gandalf wrote: »

Aww but this time its a Green Party muppet fronting it

Looking for some positive PR no doubt.......

gandalf

bcirl03 wrote: »

Looking for some positive PR no doubt.......

LOL by costing us more money when the country is broke !!!!

bangersandmash

Nodin wrote: »

Make them into 80's arcade machines. Youngsters can experience life as it was then, with a major smouldering away on the side, as some gouger sticks his head in front of ye and says 'Give us your last man, mistur' or 'giveus two bob'.....

80s? Maybe be not. But by the time these things are fully disposed of, some of them may just be fit for retro 00's gaming machines. The fortunate children of the future will be able to marvel at the quaint simplicity of the games their Tiger parents used to play. And it'll all be down to Martin Cullen. Credit where credit is due.

Seriously even if the machines are somehow pawned off on somebody else (a charitable cause perhaps?), it looks like we might continue to pay for them for the foreseeable future.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/costly-storage-of-evoting-machines-slammed-as-lunacy-1198858.html

gandalf

25 YEARS Holy god what the hell were they thinking. I assume that was a council decision in Monaghan. I wonder were they connected with the person who won that contract

r0nanf

RTE wrote:

While electronic voting is now at an end, he said there is still a 'considerable need' for electoral reform. He says this can best be pursued by establishing an Independent Electoral Commission.

He says does he? We already have an Electoral Commission. Were researchers cut out in the budget too?

Nodin

gandalf wrote: »

25 YEARS Holy god what the hell were they thinking. I assume that was a council decision in Monaghan. I wonder were they connected with the person who won that contract

As an old Frank Kelly sketch put it....

'vote fer the Ballykilferret Gombeen party........because ye never know....when ye might need a favour.....'

peasant

... you couldn't make it up, could you?


No seriously, if you wrote this story as satire or whatever, any editor would turn you down and tell you to be a bit more realistic as nobody could be THAT incompetent.

Sully

Not even the balls to apologise for one waste and then starting another waste of money. A TASK FORCE?!

mike65

Reminds me of the Cold Stores kings who made a fortune during the beef mountian era.

ART6

Sully wrote: »

Not even the balls to apologise for one waste and then starting another waste of money. A TASK FORCE?!

This sounds like another one of those "How many XXXs does it take to change a light bulb?" jokes.

In the case of FF, a minister to note that it might need changing, and a junior minister to decide that it probably does. A consultant (the minister's brother Seamus, who is actually a baker by trade) then needs to be appointed to decide if it does, and if so to prepare a report that will suggest the appointment of a commission to look into the matter. The commission can then be required to prepare a report to the minister in six months, suggesting that the bulb does indeed appear to be unavailable for service, and that therefore a task force should be appointed to examine how best to replace it. The task force then consults with various bodies such a Health and Safety and the Equal Opportunities before preparing a method statement and risk assessment, leading to a contractor being appointed with a ten year, half million contract to change the bulb. Meanwhile everyone in the Dáil continues to stumble around in the dark, which is why government in this country works so well.

turgon

Excellent post ART6, but you just missed the part where the Dail committee interviews the developers and all those involved in the due process to evaluate the necessarily for an "Edison Tribunal", determining whether or not the light bulb was installed correctly and if it is, in fact, working.


Meanwhile a two year old kid flicks on the switch...

SeanW

You need to convene a task force now, to tell you to send those heaps off for WEEE recycling? :eek: As Miley used to say in Glenroe "Well Holy God"

SEPT 23 1989

in any other country all involved would have resigned five minutes after this announcement

Big_Mac

They'll now need to sit on their hands for a number of years while they bicker and squabble over where the contract for the disposal goes to, and how much it will cost all the while paying more storage on them.. Absolutely class.

marcsignal

mike65 wrote: »

Finally.

Seems they can't find anything else to do with them.

Surely they could sell them to "Mr. Quirkeys Good Time Emporium" on O Connell St.
They're about as useful and predictable as an arcade gaming machine.
A "Texas Hold Em" or "Russian Roulette" game springs to mind :pac:

oscarBravo

alegrabaroque wrote: »

We voted - it counted the votes.

How do you know it did it correctly?

alegrabaroque

oscarBravo wrote: »

How do you know it did it correctly?

How do you know it didn`t?

oscarBravo

alegrabaroque wrote: »

How do you know it didn`t?

I don't. That's my point. You and others pushed buttons, and some time later, a result came out. There was no way of verifying that result.

You might (or might not) find this interesting. In particular, check out the discrepancies on page 3.

JohnMc1

They should have sold the machines to the NY State Board of Elections when they had the chance.

Bob Z

gandalf wrote: »

25 YEARS Holy god what the hell were they thinking. I assume that was a council decision in Monaghan. I wonder were they connected with the person who won that contract

Yes according to the sunday times it was an uncle.

And even if the machines had been used they were only to be used for 20 years but they were stored away with a 25 year lease