The days of voters lining up to use a pencil and paper to cast their ballot will continue, with a federal parliamentary committee ruling out a move to electronic voting. The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters has released an interim report which finds there are too many risks associated with the move. It said shifting to electronic voting for federal elections was not feasible before the next election or in the near future without “catastrophically compromising electoral integrity”. The committee found machine electronic voting was vulnerable to hacking and measures to mitigate that risk would be costly and would still require voters to visit a polling booth. The prospect of voters being able to cast their ballot on the internet also seems a long way off, with questions about privacy for individual voters, security and potential coercion of voters.
Committee chairman Tony Smith said: “In future it is likely, given the turbo-advances in technology, that a system of online electronic voting could be delivered with acceptable safety and security.”
“But even when we reach that time, there should be considerations beyond the convenience it would offer.” Mr Smith said “technological convenience must be balanced against electoral integrity”.