[E-voting] Letter in Todays Examiner

[Colm MacCarthaigh]

http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/opinion/Full_Story/did-sgyGlrkS5G85Ysg7OWirIStPSk.asp

Vote for the toy churn system

I HAVE just spent half an hour watching my nephew Charlie, aged 14
months, playing with a small tin churn with a lid. Until recently the
churn held some toffees.

Charlie repeatedly places a small plastic toy into the churn and then
puts the lid on.

Then he takes the lid off and, lo!, the toy is still in the tin churn.
He then takes the plastic toy out and repeats the process.

Of course Charlie cannot count yet, but he is developing an understanding of the nature of storage.

If we consider Charlie's toy to represent a unit of data, the number '1'
for instance, we can see that his play is prefiguring the understanding
of that simple, straightforward data storage mechanism which involves
pieces of marked paper and sealed tin boxes, and which, fortunately, is
still a part of our democratic election process in this country.

Someday, if Charlie becomes perhaps a professor of computer science, he
may have as full an understanding of how electrons are used within the
immensely complicated architecture of the silicon chip to store data as
he already has of how his tin churn stores a plastic toy.

But realistically, just like almost every other Irish citizen, he is
unlikely to acquire such very specialised knowledge.

During the Government's attempt last year to introduce electronic voting
a great deal was made of the reliability of the proposed electronic
process. Various experts were called upon to give their opinions. Like
most people, I am not an electronic or software expert, so I can't give
any informed opinion on the matter - it's quite likely such systems are
technically highly reliable, but I just don't know.

I can say something very obvious about electronic voting systems,
though, and it is this: along with well in excess of 99% of the people
of Ireland, I don't understand the way computers process and store data.
The central issue with electronic voting systems is not system
reliability... the problem is understanding the system.

An additional issue is that any electronic "count" occurring in some
silicon chip is publicly invisible, hidden in tiny increments of both
space and time.

It is of course quite impossible for anyone to detect an error or a
fraud in a system whose workings they can neither observe nor
understand.

I feel it is a matter of real imperative that data (ie, votes) storage
at elections should always be with simple, publicly visible, sealed tin
boxes and pieces of paper.

Counting should also be entirely visible to the public, a simple system
open to ordinary understanding and scrutiny and so amenable to the
people's trust.

If Charlie could talk (he nearly can), I think he would agree.

Stan Reynolds
The Old Schoolhouse
Toames West
Macroom
Co Cork

-- 
Colm MacCárthaigh                        Public Key: colm+pgp at stdlib.net