Four UK councils to pilot e-voting this spring

Four local councils are gearing up to pilot electronic voting in the UK elections on 4 May. But the move requires new legislation on remote voting - and if the laws are not passed in time, the councils will have to pull the plug on the trials.

A top-level document obtained from the Home Office reveals that Bury, Salford, Stratford and Warrington have all had their e-voting schemes approved in principle. But a final go-ahead relies on the smooth passage of the Representation of the People Bill, which is still bouncing between the Lords and the Commons - with no definite date for royal assent.

All four councils received a letter from Home Secretary, Jack Straw, advising them to proceed on the basis that there will be no delay to the Bill, which introduces flexibility to the timing, method and location of voting. But amendments introduced yesterday guaranteeing that illegal residents will not be able to vote will send the Bill back to Commons for further discussion.

Stan Monaghan, council solicitor for Bury borough council, is pioneering the scheme with 7,000 voters to encourage more young people to vote. He said: "Electronic voting has got to be the way forward. It is archaic to use a stubby pencil and piece of paper in the era of digital TV. At the last local election we only had a 28 percent turn-out."

Councils also stand to make considerable cost-savings, as they don't need to employ as many people to count paper votes. "The electronic results are secure and audited, with back-up checks," continued Monaghan. "It has been tried and tested in the US."

He added: "If the Bill is not passed in time, we'll just have to pull the plug."

Bury is using US software developed by Global Election Systems, in partnership with Trilogy Systems. Fellow pioneer, Warrington Borough Council, is working with Dutch supplier, Nedap.