Why no online voting ?

Excellent idea.

Fine in theory -but would it not be easy prey for cyber-vandals or digital anarchists ?

Online banking is massive these days and rising with no problems. There is more than enough expertise to make a system safe and secure from any potential threats unless of course that threat came from the government itself yo botch the results. High traffic issues are also easily avoided with a little common sense.

irish govts are good at that sorta thing..!!remember the machines they bought!?!?

We could not sort out electronic voting so what chance online voting. Surely this is the way forward but i reckon there would not so much challenges to it. Would be a great idea. I'd say the there's a large percentage of people that would vote but can't for many reasons.

What reasons can you give?

Studies show that a much higher percentage of people in the ' poorer ' section of society would like to but don't vote because they can't get away from their duties whether it be low long paid work or looking after kids/ single parents.
   A lot of people are not aware of the registering procedure and have not the time out of the daily grind to suss it out.
  Many people living in homeless hostels/ rehab centers, people in hospital, people on holiday or working away from their voting district.
   If there is such a high percentage in one section of society then it would suggest that a large percentage of a certain kind of vote lost.
  The saving on cost with internet voting could be put towards raising awareness on registering to vote and process. Maybe even go as far as throwing in a lollipop for each vote cast, 20 euros of electricity or the likes.

Too much chance of coercion because you don't have the privacy of the ballot box

I can't understand why we don't arrange to vote on Sunday as many continental countries do .
This way more people should be freed up to vote and there would be no school time lost .
As a letter writer to the IT pointed out -why couldn't this week's elections have been set for next week which is midterm .
One despairs of the mettle of governments and civil servants . They seem incapable of even the simplest common sense calculations.

In this day and age any coercion is very dangerous to any party considering the rise in camera phones etc. Even if say 100 votes were obtained this way you can be confident good evidence will come from one, not worth the risk to any party. It does open a hole can of worms though with fake stories perhaps, who is to say there isn't coercion in the present system. I honestly don't think it would be any more of a problem than it already is.

Is it that the government  is incapable of common sense on these matters or they are using their common sense for their own agenda.

How can there be coercion in the present system.

I can threaten anyone to vote for a particular party but they go into the booth alone and post their ballot paper in secret with pretty much no chance of someone finding out their vote.

If they were at home, this privacy is completely gone

You can threaten/manipulate someone just as easily to make them go to a ballet box and vote a certain way. At home you can vote whenever you want in the privacy of your own home. It is not like you have to be at the computer at a certain time to vote and somebody from a party is there in your home at that time to force you to vote a certain way.

Ok so you are in a private booth and they wouldn't know you voted another way, makes sense. It would still be very hard to make somebody vote a certain way in their own home. Could people who just don't want to vote sell their votes ? Again any evidence would destroy a party not to mention be very expensive but possible. If we are living in a society that so many people would sell their votes to effect who governs and for their to be no full proof evidence....

Ok Db try this.... You may be in a private booth but the coercer wants evidence of your vote by seeing you record it from marking to dropping it in box, very easy to do this on your phone.

Voting online recorded evidence with a webcam with wide picture to show nobody is behind you. If the coercer is under the table with a gun then you could still vote whatever way you wanted and they would be none the wiser.