Government: No e-voting next year

The government will not use e-voting within the next year for local or European elections.

Michael Wills, the secretary of state for justice, told parliament last week the government has no plans to introduce or even trial electronic polling tech next year.

"The government do not plan to introduce e-voting for the 2009 European or local elections," he said.

Asked about funding for e-voting for the next two years, he said: "The government are currently taking stock of the previous work on remote e-voting, including the experience gained in earlier pilots, and the responses to the consultation on election day, to inform the way forward."

Analysts have warned that people lack confidence in e-voting, and attempts to use the tech in previous elections have been slammed.

Wills also laid out the costs for the electronic database of voters, the co-ordinated online record of electors (CORE). Development costs, exluding staff salaries, has now topped 2.7 million. The bulk of that some 1.7 million has been spend upgrading local authorities to Election Markup Language, while 1.02 million has been given as grants to support data standards.

He told parliament that the project is still holding meetings regarding user requirements, identity issues and how the systems will operate, and expects to release a statement on what the system will require by March 2009.