In response to a letter organised by Webroots Democracy and co-signed by 30 leading academics and charity bosses, Minister for Parliamentary Business Joe Fitzpatrick MSP has reaffirmed the Scottish Government’s commitment to the trialling of an electronic voting system. The government outlined its commitment to improving its online services as part of the Digital Strategy for Scotland, this trial is part of that mission statement. … Scottish director of Open Rights Group, Matthew Rice said: “We have got to think what would happen if a foreign actor was interested in the outcome of our elections. It [electronic voting] always introduces security risks. We are saying that it should not be rolled out.” Director of Big Brother Watch, Silkie Carlo told DIGIT: “We are deeply concerned about the e-voting trials in Scotland. It is vital in a democracy that elections are free and fair. But computerised rather than human ballot counting undermines transparency and risks serious security breaches.”
“E-voting could also dramatically raise the stakes for hacking ordinary voters at home. These are unacceptable risks to take and we urge Scottish government drop plans for this failed and broken system.”
At this time e-voting is not hack-proof, a simple system error could potentially wreak havoc on the Scottish electoral system. There are weaknesses that nefarious individuals may exploit to influence our votes. Currently, voter confidence has been rocked by the recent immoral use of data and the examples of e-voting set in the US are not heartening.
Full Article: Electronic Voting Scotland: Government Gives Go Ahead for Trials.