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| Source: my.gov.au |
In most parts of the world where elections
still rely on traditional paper ballots submitted at official polling stations,
the volunteers and election staff on hand are tasked with the responsibility of
verifying the identities of voters and comparing them with the list of
registered voters. In most cases, a simple driver's license or some other form
of government-issued photo identification will suffice. Other places may ask
for a piece of mail with the voter's home address. Depending on the
jurisdiction, the rules may be more strict or more lax.
When direct recording electronic voting
machines are introduced at official polling sites, there are still staff on
hand who check the identity of voters before directing them to the appropriate
machine. The machines themselves may or may not have voter verification
technologies in place, like scanning a government-issued identification card.
What happens, then, when the vote is taken online?
This is the question being raised ahead of
the 2016 federal election in Australia and the
current proposal is calling for integration with the existing myGov account
system. The Australian Department of Communications is looking for an e-voting
trial for the upcoming election, following the success of smaller trials in the
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and New South Wales. Extending this trial on
a national scale introduces additional challenges, but the existing infrastructure
of the myGov government log-in system could work.
The myGov system
is meant to provide Australians with a simple way to access government
services, using “one login, one password [and] one destination.” Member
services already utilizing the myGov system include Medicare, Child Support,
and Centrelink, the last of which handles a range of government payments. Department of Communications deputy secretary
Abul Rizvi says myGov “may provide an ideal vehicle to trial e-voting at the
federal level.”
However, it has been met with skepticism
and critics due to vulnerabilities that were discovered in the website. It is
important that the Australian government address these concerns over security
and confidentiality ahead of the 2016 e-voting election trial. In many parts of
the world that are experimenting with or have already implemented e-voting
technology on a widespread scale, biometric
authentication of voters can be very useful.
To accurately identify voters, electoral
agencies can utilize biometric data that is unique to each individual,
including 10 fingerprints and iris scans, as well as photo identification,
signatures and secure passwords. Biometric technology can protect
against election fraud, as in the case in Tanzania ahead of its 2015
national elections.
One of the reasons why Estonia
continues to be a world leader in online voting technology is that all
citizens have mandatory identification that includes biometric data. The myGov
system in Australia could serve as a similar platform as it continues to grow
and mature. Rizvi feels that Internet voting is the “inevitable long term
outcome” for electronic voting and having the pieces in place ahead of time can
prepare the country and its citizens for this reality.
In the meantime, as voters still submit
their ballots in a physical voting place, electronic voting devices could
provide a reliable bridge between the two technologies. Indeed, Rizvi states
that voters may be able to bring their own device—like a smartphone or
tablet—to the voting place and connect to the local system to cast a vote. This
reduces cost for the electoral system and allows for experimentation with
myGov-based Internet voting in a closed and secure network.
