Madam, - To the best of my knowledge, neither Brendan Tangney nor Annrai O'Toole has engaged in the ongoing and open debate on e-voting with their fellow IT professionals and concerned citizens.
Therefore, it is regrettable to read their unsubstantiated accusations of Luddism and ill-informed argument, (April 6th).
They appear to entirely miss the point of concern, which is that unlike any other form of IT, nobody knows if an e-voting system is working correctly when it is actually in use.
This can be seen from the example they cite, of computers used in aircraft.
Responsibility for flying aircraft lies with the pilot and not a computer.
Even if a plane is flown from start to finish by computer, the pilot watches the computer and uses independent systems to judge its behaviour.
Therefore, airline passengers do not need to trust aircraft computers, they simply trust the pilot.
Furthermore, every time a flight arrives at its destination and if flown by the computer without incident, is an occasion where the computer is proven to have worked.
No complicated or elaborate tests or examination of the computer are required to know this.
The simple fact of the plane arriving in one piece is independent proof.
Therefore, confidence in such computer systems can only increase with experience.
This cannot be the case for an unverifiable e-voting system because there will always be a suspicion and risk of tampering or unintentional error, and unfortunately no independent way to refute it.
Opponents of the Government's e-voting system want the same level of protection for voters that airlines provide for their passengers, which is an independent way to scrutinise and verify the electronic system, overseen by accountable human beings. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL MCMAHON, Strayacre, Oldtown, Co Dublin.
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Madam, - Annrai O'Toole and Brendan Tangney (April 6th) are exasperated by those making ill-informed arguments about computing systems and point out that computers are used in aircraft, cars and navigation systems because they are less prone to errors than humans.
This is indeed so, but computers, like all systems, are open to some element of error.
Pilots of aircraft, drivers of cars and users of navigation equipment are in a position to take ongoing corrective action in the case of such errors.
Would Messrs O'Toole and Tangney be happy to be passengers on an aircraft piloted solely by a computer?
The argument against the proposed system of e-voting is not because it is computer-based but because it does not allow for ongoing human validation of its results. - Yours, etc.
JACK MORRISSEY Acorn Road, Dublin 16.