Local body election time is over for another three years, and even before polls closed, there were laments over low turnout. A low turnout undermines the legitimacy of the winners and can point to wider problems: disillusionment with democratic processes, institutions and actors. It is also problematic because some groups are less likely to vote than others, and so candidates appeal to the interests of those who vote over those who don’t. Older people and home owners are more likely to vote in local body elections, which may explain the prevalence of ‘controlling rates’ as a campaign slogan. In the lead up to the 2016 local body elections, a trial of electronic voting was proposed and was some way towards implementation before being abandoned, because of security concerns. A number of commentators have argued the online voting will help turn around declining local body election turnouts, but I want to argue this is not necessarily the solution to the problem. I ask two simple questions: will the proposed solution solve the problem, and what new problems will it create? Not only should the solution work, but, when balancing all effects, it should be worthwhile.
The first question to ask is, would online voting actually solve the problem? Is the means of voting the cause of non-voting, or are the problems ones of political engagement? Research in the United Statesshowed that easing voter registration requirements did not lead to higher turnout; the ‘cost’ of voting to electors was not voting mechanics as such, but getting informed about politics. Making voting easier helped the already engaged vote, but did not increase engagement. Solving low turnout is more complex than just making the mechanics of voting easier.
… New solutions create new problems. In the case of online voting, the most intractable problem relates to the security of the system. If the voting system is not secure, the whole process risks losing public confidence, creating a downwards spiral of even more disengagement and non-voting. Voting in democracies has important features, including anonymity. The privacy and anonymity of voting ensures that people are not able to be bullied or bribed to vote a particular way; the secrecy of the ballot is considered such an important feature of elections that it is included in Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Another important feature is verifiability – knowing that the votes cast are the votes counted. These two features are essential to trust in the system, yet with online voting they pull against each other. In a paper ballot system – and this holds particularly where people vote at a polling booth and less so for postal voting – the vote you cast is the vote that gets counted. The scrutineers and the electoral staff can tell your intention (unless your ballot paper is verymessy) and count it accordingly. They do not trace the vote back to you unless there is suspicion the vote was tampered with, and so anonymity is retained.
The security concern with online voting includes the inability to prove that the vote counted was the same as the vote lodged, given anonymity. What happens to the vote between the citizen making their vote, and it being counted? Can it be tampered with or hacked in any way – and if it was, how would anyone know? This concern just does not happen with paper ballots; voting papers are kept secure until counting, at which point the vote on the paper is witnessed by multiple people during the counting process who know what your intention was. But how do scrutineers verify that the online votes that arrived in the “in” box for counting are identical to the votes cast? This particular security concern does not exist with other important online transactions such as electronic banking, where customers can see their bank activity and balances and contact the bank if anything is remiss. As voters, we will have no idea whether the vote we make is the vote that gets counted. Further, all online banks and retailers expect a certain ‘loss’ from things going wrong: is this acceptable for our democratic processes? There are currently multiple security weaknesses with online voting as outlined here and here, including the inability to guarantee both anonymity and verifiability.
Full Article: No Silver Bullet: Online voting and local election turnout | Scoop News.