Electing by Electronics (Electronic Voting)

Name: stoffy

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Product:	Electronic Voting
Date:	14/02/03 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easier to vote, more accessible to younger people

Disadvantages: potential susceptibility to rigging

The recent debates over Iraq and terrorism and how the government has treated the views of the British on this issue, has opened up a whole new debate about democracy.

Throughout the 1990's, as the left moved right and the right moved backwards in British politics, the general public has seemingly become less interested in deciding who should become their MP with low election turnouts, seemingly pointing towards the disillusionment and apathy of voters.

Whilst the occasional debate on controversial issues can respark people's enthusiasm for political issues, it is apparent that something needs to be done about people expressing their views via the ballot-box.

Britain's electoral system has always given the right to its citizens the option to vote, rather than to make it compulsory. Formerly, turnovers of over 80% could be expected at a General Election, ensuring that the candidate that was successful was the choice of the consistency rather than the diligent few who marked their X.

However, at the last General Election, the turnout slumped to an embarrassing 59% - an incredible 4 out of 10 people didn't make a selection as to how their money and lives would be affected for the following 5 years. At local and European level recent turnouts have averaged around 30% with less than one in five of the electorate bothering to vote in some regions. This is incredible considering that local councils directly determine how much council tax householders have to pay and how public services are run - surely an incentive to turn the TV off and walk down to the local church or school and choose a name.

This level of indifference would be unheard of in Australia, where it is compulsory to vote. This policy, which if violated brings fines on the individuals not voting, leads to turnouts of over 90%, and means that each election is fought truly democratically.

Whilst people would be undoubtedly up in arms abou
t this system being implemented in this country, there are other ways to ensure that more people have a say in how the country is run. If you can't take the voter to the ballot-box, why not bring the ballot-box to the voter?

Whilst proxy voting by post has been a feature of General Elections for decades, the issue of electronic voting remains to be a sticky one. However, Robin Cook has stated that he is keen for the UK to become pioneers in e-voting, although some of his colleagues aren't quite so keen. With the whole host of other issues going through Parliament at the moment, the initial wish to have it in place for the 2005/2006 election seems to now be remote. So will it actually work in increasing the turnouts?

In the limited trials at state level in the USA, there is some evidence to suggest that people will be more inclined to vote, although traditional methods remained more popular. In the UK, I would imagine any such trials to have the same effect, in that voting in person would probably remain the most popular method. However, as it became more commonplace, and the UK moved closer towards 100% of its population on the Internet, it would possibly become the most popular method to vote.

However, the main fear of implementing online voting is that the system would be susceptible to fraud, and people registering multiple votes. It also means that recounts may become more complex, and there is also more potential for disputed results to end up in the courts as there is no indisputable paper evidence to say how people made their selections.

However, I think that in a technologically changing society, it is important to reflect that people's requirements also change. With many people commuting long distances to go to work, and with people having ever-mounting priorities, many people find it difficult to find the time to vote. Whilst extending voting times at ballot-boxes may alleviate this problem to a po
int, online voting would be a quick and easy way for people to vote no matter where they are.

Obviously, there are problems with voters being unable to be registered due to the failing of computer systems. However, the same thing applies to post proxy voting - a huge number of people failed to get their forms through in time for the 2001 elections thanks to postal delays, meaning that they never had a change to register their vote, despite following all of the procedures correctly.

The potential for fraud can be circumvented by well-researched and infallible safeguards. In the same way that people's bank accounts and transactions are safeguarded, the vote can be too. Whilst the former may be open to abuse on the realisation of one persons' account details, it would be much harder to rig an election, as the details of many people would be needed to carry out a fully-fledged assault on altering an election result.

Whilst more thought needs to be put into the issue, particularly in terms of security, it would definitely be a step in modernising the system so that younger people take a more active interest and participation in politics. Providing that people can still vote anonymously and that the system isn't open to rigging, the government have nothing to lose by pursuing electronic voting. It gets my vote anyway...

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