New South Wales voters could cast a ballot at the next state election without leaving home under proposed changes that would alleviate the Saturday rush for polling booths. A joint parliamentary inquiry into electoral matters said the so-called iVote system, which allows electors to vote using the internet, should be introduced for all council and state elections. It called for the measure in a draft report obtained by Fairfax Media, saying it would help boost voter turnout. The report is due to be tabled in Parliament on Thursday. However, voting experts say the system is open to abuse by hackers and should be used with caution.
The Local Government Acts Taskforce says electronic voting could cut costs and “improve voter convenience and accessibility”.
But University of Sydney constitutional law expert Anne Twomey said electronic voting systems could be infiltrated by hackers. She said that, aside from the recent lost votes at the Western Australian senate election, physical ballots were “pretty secure and it’s impossible for someone with one computer to destroy the whole thing”.
ABC election analyst Antony Green said the security of electronic voting remained an “unanswered question”.
Full Article: Internet vote on the card for next state poll.