Sir, – I appreciated the letter fromThomas Power (February 7th), and the case he sets out for the introduction of internet voting is persuasive and well reasoned.
What scuppers his argument however, is that elections in this country are generally considered a sport or entertainment. Irish people devour the plethora of opinion polls in the lead-up to election day, await the projections of exit polls after the polling stations have closed with breathless anticipation, and tune in avidly to the excellent media coverage of the ongoing counts, in the various count centres, as they occur. Swings, gains and losses are analysed ad nauseam, voting transfer patterns studied with rapt attention, and nothing delights as much as the fall of a major politician who has eventually succumbed to the odium or indifference of their constituency electorate (our version of the tumbril and guillotine).
The prolonged process of our electoral system is its appeal, and the anticipation of the gradual reveal of the results would be diminished if we had a more instantaneous set of results. – Yours, etc,
FRANK WALSH,
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Coolballow,
Co Wexford.