E-voting: if the Dutch can do it, why can’t we?

HAVING read Noel Whelan’s column on e-voting (Irish Examiner, May 6), I wondered how the Dutch, a nation not particularly noted for its stupidity, managed to use the same system that he denounces for all kinds of elections for 15 years without any trouble or dispute.

Me? I’m simple-minded and figure that if a computer can guide a packet of instruments through millions of miles of space to land on Mars, it can count a few hundred thousand votes accurately. Which is a lot more than our present manual system can do.

After all, the whole point of our much-beloved recounts is that everyone is quite certain that every time you count you’ll get a different answer.