Technology and hacking elections

Sir, – Karlin Lillington's article "Elections are the next frontier in hacking" (Business, June 8th) on the vulnerability of elections to hacking reaches the conclusion that "election outcomes are almost certainly far more at risk than you believe". She goes on to detail risks, some of which are "surprisingly mundane". One of the examples given is that of voter rosters. These often involve computers and data files. They are open to hacking and voters can be removed from the register. Those voters can be denied the right to vote. The moral of the story seems to be that anything to do with that most basic action of citizens in democracies, ie casting ballots, should have no connection with computers or the internet.

It is consoling that the credibility and viability of our democracies are depending on the blunt pencil and the piece of paper, and not on some high-tech methodology that most of us do not understand. – Yours, etc,

A LEAVY,

Sutton,

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Dublin 13.