We buy on the Internet and do banking online. Yet we still vote with pen and paper. The interest in online voting is great, but above all unresolved security problems are an obstacle for e-voting.
E-Voting in Practice: Two years ago, Austrian students selected their representatives in the National Union of Students (Students’ Union) for the first time by clicking select. But the elections were anything but smooth: turnout dropped below 30 percent and less than one percent of students voted online. There were also problems with the technology and the University of Salzburg eventually annulled the election. This year they will return to pen and paper, voting via the Internet has been eliminated.
In contrast, in Estonia e-voting has worked in parliamentary elections. Since 2005 voters can cast their selections online or by phone in the Internet-savvy small Baltic republic. In the elections last March, one in four voters made their crosses on a home PC – or via SMS.
… But critics are not so relaxed. They cite in particular unresolved security problems. Elections are a central part of democracy which should take place in a particularly secure environment. Until now, no one can guarantee the security of online voting, hackers could massively manipulate elections.
In its landmark ruling on the use of voting machines two years ago, the Federal Constitutional Court established high demands on the security and transparency of electronic voting systems. No should be able to disappear somewhere in the black box of an election computer or, with online voting, on the servers of a data center. The electronic vote count must be repeatable. As for paper elections is not a problem. Is it on the count of doubt, the ballot box is simply turned over and the ballots recounted.
Full Article: ZDFheute | News – E-Voting: click instead of crosses. (Deutsch)