Madam, - As someone with many years' experience in the computer industry I would caution against electronic voting of any kind.
Democracy depends on publicly comprehensible voting mechanisms that do not become obsolete over time. The vote-counting methods in use today may look archaic and strange, but they are proven to work to within predictable margins of error and their flaws and vulnerabilities are known to everyone.
Modern computer technology is both extraordinarily complex and is changing at an astounding rate. Even if every single line of voting computer code is placed in the public domain only a tiny proportion of the public will be able to understand it. Any such computer system would also use components from dozens of different legal entities and would therefore include many whose internal behaviour is regarded as a trade secret by their manufacturers. It will not be possible for even a technically literate voter to be totally sure that such a system will work. There is also the worrying scenario in which one of the issues in the election involves a corporation that makes part of the electronic voting system.
In addition to being very complicated, computer technology is changing continually. Any electronic voting system adopted now will need to be replaced within 15 years by one that is even more complicated.
Considering that the the benefits of electronic voting appear to revolve around costs and the drawbacks involve the possibility of anarchy, civil disorder and possibly even the end of democracy, I find it hard to see why anyone in the Government would regard this as a "must have". - Yours, etc.,
DAVID ROLFE, Leinster Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6.