32. — The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001 is amended—

(a) in section 35 by—

(i) deleting “, biometric, photonic” in the definition of “electronic”, and

(ii) inserting “recorded and” after “are” in the definition of “electronic voting system”,

(b) in section 36 by—

(i) in subsection (1), inserting after “Minister.” the following:

“In considering whether to approve such equipment the Minister shall have regard to any report or reports available to him or her with respect to the matter (being a report or reports prepared by a body or bodies which are accredited to or recognised by the European Co-operation for Accreditation) and shall be satisfied that the equipment enables a Dáil election to be conducted in accordance with the relevant enactments (in particular with regard to such matters as the integrity and confidentiality of the voting and vote counting processes).”,

(ii) inserting after subsection (1), the following:

“(1A) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), a voting machine shall not be approved under that subsection unless—

(a) it is designed so as to de-activate automatically, or be capable of being de-activated by an operator under the control of the presiding officer, between each vote cast by individual voters, and

(b) the control unit (or other appropriate device) of it is designed so as to indicate to the operator whether the machine is open for voting and the total number of votes cast and stored on the machine without, in either case, revealing individual preferences of the votes so cast and stored.

(1B) Without prejudice to subsection (4), the Minister may from time to time prepare and publish to returning officers guidelines concerning the steps to be taken by them and such other persons as are specified in the guidelines to ensure compliance by them with this Part generally and, in particular, the matters specified in subsection (1) and section 41(4) or, as appropriate, section 10(4) of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2004.”,

and

(iii)   in subsection (2), inserting after “Minister may”, “, if he or she is of opinion that the public interest so requires,”,

(c) in section 38 by substituting the following subparagraphs for subparagraphs (ii) to (iv) of paragraph (ll):

“(ii)     for ‘obtained a ballot paper’ in subsection (1)(b) there were substituted ‘applied to vote’;

(iii)     there were deleted `(otherwise than under section 102)' in subsection (1)(b); and

(iv)     for ‘obtained a ballot paper’ in subsection (2) there were substituted ‘applied to vote’;”,

(d) in section 40 by substituting the following subsection for subsection (2):

“(2) If, for whatever reason, the voting machine concerned fails to produce the printed statement referred to in subsection (1), the information that would have been recorded in that statement, being information displayed on the voting machine's display screen, together with any other information specified by the form to be entered on it, shall be entered on a form directed by the Minister for the purposes of this subsection. The form shall be signed by the presiding officer and witnessed by an agent or other person in the polling station.”,

(e) in section 41 by substituting the following subsection for subsection (4):

“(4) Where an elector has failed to cast, in accordance with subsection (3), his or her vote and has left the polling station and the presiding officer, accordingly, has reason to believe that the voting machine concerned is still open, the presiding officer shall verify, remotely (by means of the control unit), whether that is the case and, if the machine is open, shall de-activate it. Where an elector fails to leave a voting machine within a reasonable time the provisions of section 106(1) of the Act of 1992 shall apply and where, in such circumstances, the voting machine is still open the presiding officer shall de-activate it.”,

(f) in section 42 by substituting the following subsection for subsection (5):

“(5) If, for whatever reason, the voting machine concerned fails to produce the printed statement referred to in subsection (2), the information that would have been recorded in that statement, being information displayed on the voting machine's display screen, together with any other information specified by the form to be entered on it, shall be entered on a form directed by the Minister for the purposes of this subsection. The form shall be signed by the presiding officer and witnessed by an agent or other person in the polling station.”,

and

(g) in section 43 by—

(i) in subsection (1), inserting after “staff,”, “not earlier than one hour”, and

(ii) substituting the following subsection for subsection (10):

“(10) If, for whatever reason, the voting machine concerned fails to produce the printed statement referred to in subsection (5) or (6), the information that would have been recorded in that statement, being information displayed on the voting machine's display screen, together with any other information specified by the form to be entered on it, shall be entered on a form directed by the Minister for the purposes of this subsection. The form shall be signed by the returning officer or a person authorised by him or her and witnessed by an agent or if no agent is present by another person present.”.