12 April 2002
ERS experts are concerned that local authorities will not be able to cover the cost of implementing Labour's e-strategy, which the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions has reiterated must be completed by 2005.
The DTLR this week published a consultation paper on the issue, containing extensive targets for the provision of local government services on-line, as well as targets for e-democracy and e-citizenship.
The department has already provided funding to 30 local authorities to pilot new voting systems – such as through the Internet, mobile phone messaging and electronic polling – at the local elections on May 2.
But although the ERS welcomed the drive to overcome voter apathy in the wake of recent poor electoral turnouts, it said it had serious misgivings about local authorities' ability to achieve this, and called on politicians to avoid setting exacting targets.
Alex Folkes, the society's spokesman, said: 'What we don't want to see is the mishmash of e-democracy instruments that exists in the US. There, some local authorities have been able to afford new methods of voting, while others have not. That simply creates an imbalance in democracy across authorities.'
Folkes revealed that many e-democracy tools appear inexpensive, but would carry additional costs. Internet voting systems, for example, are easy to implement, but security systems raise costs significantly.
Electronic polling, meanwhile, would save councils time and labour costs, but each machine costs around £2,500.
A spokesman for the DTLR said that the department had made no estimate of the total cost of implementing its 2005 e-democracy strategy, but revealed that £4.1m had been earmarked for the pilot voting schemes for the May elections.
For example, the London Borough of Newham said that it had received around £640,000 from the DTLR to pilot electronic voting machines in polling booths, but had also contributed a 'significant amount' itself.
PFapr2002
