The Department of Communications has floated the possibility of using the government’s new controversial MyGov identification system for Australians to trial electronic voting. … The MyGov so-called one-stop-shop for identity verification has faced criticism in the past few months after vulnerabilities were found in the website, including the ability for one researcher to hijack the accounts of registered MyGov users, according to a Fairfax report. Rizvi said there would be risks associated with testing electronic voting, but these would have to be weighed up against the risks associated with the traditional paper-based voting method, which resulted in Western Australia having to go back to the polls earlier this year to re-vote the WA Senate election.
He said that the government holds much more valuable information than how governments are elected. “There are systems governments hold that offer prizes far greater than manipulating an electoral system,” he said. “I guess I was comparing national security issues, and the question of how you can recover from an attack on an electoral system compared to a national security system.”
Rizvi said that internet voting was the “inevitable long term outcome” for electronic voting, but in the meantime local voting with electronic devices was the best way forward. He said one way to reduce the cost of rolling out electronic voting to every polling booth around the country would be to find a way for voters to bring their own devices on polling day.
Full Article: Controversial MyGov login could be used as e-voting ID | ZDNet.