Democracy Day: Developing countries use technology to empower their citizens

Developing countries are now beginning to realize the power of technology in helping them deliver services more efficiently and provide their citizens with the tools needed for them to get involved in government initiatives more – especially in elections.

Asia and Africa are blazing the trail in this trend.  In the past ten years, countries such as India, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe have rolled out innovations to improve the transparency, security, precision and reliability of their elections, positively impacting their democracies by committing to the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, the theme for Democracy Day 2016.

In India, the authorities have focused on a plan to improve their education system through e-government, guaranteeing better management and attention to the students in the country’s schools.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited startups and investors to join the efforts to develop automated voting machines that meet international security standards (such as printed voting vouchers), adding mechanisms that make voting easier and more accessible.

Governments in Africa have shown an approach focused on technology that modernizes electoral registries and makes voter authentication more effective.  Uganda successfully tried out a biometric system that was deployed at the polling centres, considerably reducing the possibilities of fraud.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is analyzing the implementation of biometrics for the 2018 elections, in order to improve the electoral system by making it more inclusive and reliable.

The free world needs to adapt to the rapid advancements in technology and learn to harness its great power if it is to solve the many challenges confronting democracies nowadays.

Swiss citizens abroad push for a reform to allow e-voting

The Council of the Swiss Abroad (CSA) has decided to find mechanisms to increase the voting turnout of younger generations and enfranchise Swiss citizens abroad by means of online voting. 

  

Therefore, the Council would like to implement this technology, already successful in countries like Estonia, a trailblazer and a leader in Internet voting, employing the practice in their national elections since 2005. 

During their annual congress, held in early August, the CSA debated about electronic and online voting, taking into account the constant requests to the Swiss government to employ innovations that make it easier for Swiss citizens abroad to vote.  

The CSA’s leading committee considers that broadening the possibility to vote for their members will grant the organization greater legitimacy. “The models applied by the UK and Belgium can serve as models for our communities in other countries”.  

Those promoting e-voting have argued that some Swiss expats lack the possibility to cast their votes, since postal voting is not reliable enough in some of the countries they reside in. 

With an Internet voting model it is possible to guarantee that citizens have access to the vote from anywhere in the world by using a smartphone, a tablet or a computer. This technology guarantees that the will of each citizen is recorded securely, transparently and precisely, doing away with the human errors that commonly take place during traditional manual voting.  

The CSA, which convenes every two years, represents the interests of over 760 thousand Swiss citizens residing abroad to the authorities and the media. 

Why isn't Australia using e-voting yet?

A very common assumption that many people make is that the citizens living in more developed countries typically have access to and use more advanced technology on a regular basis. It can only be assumed that highly technologically-inclined countries like Japan and South Korea have access to some of the fastest Internet connections on the planet. It only makes sense that smartphone adoption rates in the United States are through the roof.

As strange and as counter-intuitive as it may sound, this is oftentimes not the case when it comes to issues related to government operations and public infrastructure, particularly in the context of national elections. In an otherwise highly advanced country like Canada, federal elections are still conducted with paper ballots. And while progress has been made, electronic voting on Election Day is not yet a reality for the people of Australia.

Support for the imminent adoption of e-voting technology is growing in Australia with an increasing number of its citizens questioning why they are not yet voting through electronic means. It is perhaps with a not-so-subtle dose of irony that Australians are noted as being “the pioneers of the secret ballot electoral system,” a foundational tenet of the modern democracy. Even so, Australia continues to be “behind the pack” when it comes to e-voting.

The benefits of e-voting are numerous and have been discussed many times on this blog. The efficiency of vote registration and tabulation is higher, human error is minimized, paper waste is drastically reduced, accessibility is improved, and reporting is far faster too. This isn't to say that Australia has not experimented in the increased use of technology in its elections in one form or another.

Postal voting for absentee ballots, which is particularly important for Australians living in more remote areas like in the middle of the Outback, is set to be replaced by a new i-voting platform. The traditional method of sending blank ballots through the mail and expecting citizens to send them back is time-consuming and costly, whereas online voting is more convenient and most cost-effective. It's also immediate and could account for as much as 15% of all ballots cast by Australians in major elections.

Should Australia move forward with e-voting technology on election day, the infrastructure for voter identity verification could be powered by the myGov system. This is a system that is already being used to access a broad range of government services, like child support and Medicare. The technology is already here, so it's simply a matter of getting the legislation put in place so that the voting process can be digitized.

Unfortunately, a federal parliamentary committee voted unanimously against the adoption of a fully automated voting system last year and the issue is seen as “not pressing” for most politicians in the country. In order for the policy makers to be more interested in the issue, the people of Australia must express their own support for e-voting much louder and more prominently.

A research project, titled Mobile Voting, is being put together by a team at the University of New England to determine how viable a mobile e-voting platform would be in Australia as a means of supplementing, rather than replacing, the existing paper-based ballot system. They'd also have to address potential threats and problems with e-voting, like the possibility of hacking or problems with the infrastructure.

Due diligence must be performed, of course, but Australia can look to positive examples around the globe for successful implementations of e-voting in its various forms, including the possibility of a voter-verifiable paper audit trail. 

E-voting in South Korea expanded to corporate world

The adoption and widespread implementation of electronic voting technology in the election of government officials, presidents and other elected officials can oftentimes be hampered by the bureaucracy and party politics of public office. The technology is already here and it's ready, but some politicians are hesitant to that sort of change. And this is why some of the best advances may be coming from the private sector.

The private sector is inherently more agile and quickly adaptable to change than the public sector. Major corporations and multinational companies in particularly can reap many benefits from using e-voting technology within their own decision-making infrastructure. In the case of South Korea, it has now been announced by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) that it will adopt electronic voting for its own internal processes.

Part of the motivation behind this move, according to an article in Business Korea, is to “act as a stimulus for the enhancement of voting rights of shareholders.” In many ways, the shareholders in a company are not dissimilar from the citizens of a particular country. The decisions made by executives and elected officials affect the shareholders and citizens directly, and thus the shareholders and citizens want to ensure that their opinions and preferences are heard.

KEPCO is not the first company in Korea to make this move, as some 452 Korean companies have already adopted e-voting as part of their own practices. This is according to the Korea Securities Depository and it reflects an astronomical increase compared to just 79 companies at the end of last year. This still only represents 19 percent of companies in the KOSPI and 24 percent of companies in the KOSDAQ, so much more progress needs to made among public companies in Korea to implement electronic voting.

The positive trend toward the higher adoption of e-voting among corporations and public companies is also being reflected in other parts of Asia. More specifically, e-voting was mandated for listing companies in Taiwan earlier this year. The popularity of e-voting in the private sector is growing and will quickly become the norm.

For elections in the South Korean government itself, progress has been slower. The country's people are generally more conservative in nature, though it did elect its first female president two years ago. This demonstrates some inclination toward a more progressive mindset, one that would be more amenable to the adoption of e-voting for public elections too.

At this time, elections in South Korea do not use technology for voter registration purposes, nor is an e-voting system used in elections for public office. It's quite possible that the growth of e-voting in the private sector, as demonstrated by KEPCO's announcement, will help to spur further development in the public sector too.

This is in addition to tests and demonstrations of e-voting in recent years that have further illustrated that Korea, a country rich in tradition yet definitely on the forefront of innovation with such heavy hitters as LG and Samsung, is ready to adopt e-voting on a more public context. It's ready to move into the 21^st century.

The continued growth of remote e-voting in India

As the world's second largest country by population and the world's largest democracy overall, India certainly faces more than its fair share of bureaucratic and logistical challenges in addressing the needs of its citizens. The economy is growing and jobs are being created, but living conditions for many Indian residents continues to be wearisome. And with this many people anxious to have their voices heard for how to move the country forward, capturing their intentions on Election Day can be a logistical and administrative nightmare.

One strategy that has been making significant progress in recent years is the rising adoption of electronic voting technology, particularly as it pertains to the possibility of an Internet-based online voting solution. It has been said by the Central Election Commission that a new e-voting system will be introduced soon and this will help significantly with reducing or even eliminating the issues surrounding extraordinarily long queues on voting day.

The appeal of being able to cast a ballot online is multi-faceted, going beyond the convenience of avoiding long lineups on Election Day. The simple convenience of being able to vote from home or even on a mobile device is undeniable, as is the ease of access for people who may have geographic or physical challenges to overcome. This should help with improving voter turnout too.

What's more, it's said that voting online would help to mitigate issues related to the intimidating attempts made by “goons paid for by the local leaders” that have become a problem at voting places.

The benefits for the government and for the electoral commission cannot be understated either, by reducing the wastage of paper and other resources that are needed to run a more physically-oriented election.

This all sounds very good, but it's also increasingly clear that much more work remains to be done. The e-voting and online voting solution appears to be working, but the registration process for i-voting has been nothing short of a catastrophic debacle. The Gujarat Congress issued a statement decrying the lack of adequate preparation on the part of the State Election Commission in its execution of the online voting system.

More specifically, it says that some 20,000 citizens “had registered for online voting, but necessary details for registrations were not timely shared with them by SEC.” While the SEC had sent the required usernames and passwords to registrants, the required weblink was not included. What's more, because of further technical complications and challenges, registered voters could not even complete the activation of the e-voting process.

The logistics of the situation were further exacerbated as the convenience of voting from home was nullified. Registrants were told to visit a local office in person to complete a verification form, but upon arrival, they were told to go to the magistrate office for even further verification. This is no longer convenient at all and, as such, more preparation in preparing the infrastructure for e-voting and i-voting is clearly required.

All is not lost and other democracies around the world can look to India to address problems with their own e-voting and i-voting systems in a more pre-emptive manner. Moving forward, India endeavors to make it easier for non-residents to vote online too and the recent mandates toward this goal should spur on further progress and development. 

The future of Internet voting in the US

Even though the actual election itself is still over a year away, all eyes both home and abroad have turned their attention on the United States. As Barack Obama has already served two terms and is not eligible for re-election, it means that this upcoming federal election will necessarily name a new President of the United States. It could be Florida Governor Jeb Bush. It could be former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It could be self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. It might even be real estate mogul Donald Trump.

And while the magnitude of who will eventually emerge as the winner cannot be understated, there is another very important story related to this upcoming election that should not be ignored. The technology and infrastructure involved in running the election are in dire need of improvement and upgrading.

A recent report published by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law indicates that 43 states will be using electronic voting machines that are at least 10 years old for the 2016 elections and as many as 14 states will be using machines that are more than 15 years old. This is well past their expected lifespan, especially when you consider that many of these machines are no longer manufactured and replacement parts are increasingly difficult to find. This problem is particularly notable in a number of swing states, like North Carolina and Virginia.

While some of the wealthier counties have been able to afford the purchase and configuration of new equipment, poorer and more rural counties have been left with older, more dated machines that are more prone to issues and inconsistencies. A lot has changed in the last decade and the electoral process in the United States needs to reflect this.

Consider that the United States is only now adopting the “chip” technology for credit cards, a technology that has long since been used in a number of other developed countries. Moving ahead with the democratic process requires a similar update to the machinery and infrastructure used.

Some progress has been made in expanding the availability of electronic voter registration in the United States ahead of the 2016 election. The next major step would be to not only update the electronic voting machines that some constituents may use in person, but also to update the process to include the possibility of voting online.

To this end, the US Vote Foundation has put together a comprehensive report describing the future of Internet voting in the country. More specifically, it calls for end-to-end verifiable Internet voting, or E2E-VIV for short. This system would need to provide the proper balance of security and transparency that the democratic process requires, protecting the privacy of the vote while providing voters with the ability to check the system. Voters can see if their online ballot was recorded correctly and whether the vote was properly included in the final tally.

All current systems, according to this report, are currently inadequate in guaranteeing “voter privacy or the correct election outcomes.” The proposed Internet voting system must be usable and secure, with protections in place against “large-scale coordinated attacks, both on its own infrastructure and on individual voters' computers.”

The reality of the situation is that the United States will not be ready for widespread Internet voting in time for next year's elections. However, by following the guidelines outlined by the US Vote Foundation report, the first steps can be made to move in this direction in time for the next election. There are several fundamental challenges that need to be overcome before Internet voting can become a reality on a mass scale in the country. In the meantime, America can look to positive examples elsewhere in the world where e-voting and i-voting have been successfully deployed.

Electoral officials just have to recognize the immense importance of end-to-end verifiability of any online-based voting system they consider. 

Why hasn't Canada implemented e-voting for federal elections?

Millions of Canadians are set to hit the polls on October 19 to elect a new federal government, deciding whether or not Stephen Harper and the incumbent Conservative Party will continue to lead Canada for the next few years. Both the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Liberal Party of Canada represent significant threats to Stephen Harper, but one issue that hasn't been discussed nearly enough is the lack of a modernized election system in a highly developed country that is otherwise very forward-thinking.

Indeed, while various levels of voting automation have been implemented in such countries as Brazil and India, all federal elections in Canada up until now have relied solely on manual voting. In an age that is far more digital than ever before, it is time for Canada to reconsider how it runs its elections.

Whereas the specific voting practices in the United States are determined at the state or even more local level, such is not the case in Canada. Instead, a set of standards are dictated by the Canada Elections Act. This allows for uniformity across the nation, but it also means that change can be very slow.

More test projects have been attempted in smaller elections in Canada, like in the city of Saskatoon, but not real progress has been made in having greater voting technology fully adopted at the federal level. As it stands, most voters must make a physical appearance at a designated voting place, fill out a paper ballot, and submit the paper ballot to one of the electoral staff. The ballots may be counted electronically, but they are still paper ballots.

The availability of physical polling places is important; but they should be updated and upgraded with better technology to speed up the process, allow no human errors, fewer spoiled ballots, greater security, greater efficiency and improved voter turnout. The advantages of electronic voting cannot be understated, including the flexibility to include more candidates in complex elections and better access for voters with disabilities.

Another option that should be considered alongside e-voting machines at polling places is the possibility of Internet-based voting. Canada can look to the positive examples set by countries like Estonia for this purpose, offering great security and authentication throughout the i-voting process. The youth vote could increase and modern voters would appreciate the greater convenience.

There are questions whether or not the current Conservative government in Canada is holding back the evolution and deployment of online voting. The primary demographic who support the Conservative Party in Canada tend to be more traditional in their sociopolitical views and they tend to skew toward older people. By contrast, supporters of the NDP and Liberal parties are more progressive in mindset and tend to skew toward the younger demographic, precisely the group that i-voting and e-voting would appeal to.

It would be impossible for the Canadian government to make any real changes to the election in October. However, particularly if a new party is elected, progressive change in Canada's electoral process should be highly encouraged in time for the next federal election. Canada needs to move into the 21^st century in this regard. 

The burgeoning growth of online voter registration in the United States

Electronic voting technology can be implemented along nearly every step along the democratic process, empowering citizens to exercise their right to vote in the most convenient, most secure and most efficient manner possible. There are direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines, for instance, that offer many profound benefits over traditional paper ballots. There are machines for recording, counting and tabulating the ballots to provide the results as quickly and as accurately as possible.

But even before a voter can make his mark on the ballot, digital or otherwise, he must first be properly identified, authenticated and registered to vote. In the United States, online voter registration is quickly rising in popularity across many of the states, making the democratic process more relevant and more approachable particularly for younger demographics. The growth has been pronounced and it has been rapid.

As recently as 2008, online voter registration was only available in Arizona and Washington State, providing this access to just 4 percent of all eligible voters across the country. Just six years later in 2014, these figures skyrocketed to the point where a total of 20 states were offering online voter registration to its residents, accounting for nearly half of all eligible voters in the United States. These include California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon and more. It is also being used in the District of Columbia.

The growth is continuing in more states too as Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nebraska and West Virginia are all already working on implementing online systems of their own for the purposes of voter registration. More recently, just last month, Florida Governor Rick Scott approved the use of online voter registration in the Sunshine State. The motion received “overwhelming bipartisan support.” Six other states have also approved similar legislation for the development of online voter registration systems. In Florida's case, the mandate calls for its implementation by October 2017.

In its review of online voter registration systems in the United States, the Pew Charitable Trusts found that online registration was more cost-effective than traditional paper registration, it provided for more accurate voter rolls, it was more secure, and it was more convenient for voters to register too. The United States Presidential Commission on Electoral Administration similarly supports the use of online voter registration. It's no wonder that it has strong support in many of the remaining states without such a system, like New Jersey. Other states, like South Dakota, have less enthusiastic.

The bigger push toward online voter registration in the United States is both mirrored and further demonstrated in other countries around the world as well. A prime example of this is the recent general election in the United Kingdom. The overwhelming majority of voters in this election chose to register via digital means rather than through paper forms. 

This was more clearly demonstrated on the biggest registration day, April 19, when nearly 470,000 people registered to vote electronically compared to just under 16,000 chose to do so with paper forms. All said, 7.1 million people in the United Kingdom used the online voter registration system since its original introduction last summer. Just 2.1 million people used postal registration over the same period of time.

Even as the popularity and deployment of electronic voting machines continue to expand throughout the world, it is important to recognize the need to update the entirety of the democratic process. The ongoing rise of online voter registration in the United States demonstrates promise and gives hope.

How e-voting can improve viability and visibility of minor parties

In the book titled Improving Electoral Practices: Case Studies and Practical Approaches, published by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) in 2014, several fascinating perspectives are given about the democratic process in some countries around the world. These provide profound insights into how elections can be improved in all regions. A prime example of this is in the notion of improving the viability of minor parties in major elections.

Using the United States as a well-known example, the political process can feel incredibly polarizing. There may be some minor parties and independent candidates in American elections, but the conversation is dominated by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Individual opinion and perspective is not a black-and-white issue; opinions fall on a wide spectrum and minor parties can help to better represent the near infinite shades of grey.

Also, by providing the electorate with the opportunity to support candidates and parties that more closely align with their own viewpoints, the votes are then spread out over more parties. This forces members of opposing parties to work together, forming coalition governments for the greater good of the people, rather than engaging in a more adversarial approach to politics.

In the fourth chapter of the International IDEA book, Byoung Kwon Sohn explores the political situation in Korea. Today's challenge is to enhance “the quality of democratic politics and processes” in the country, particularly in increasing the representation of women and minorities in the formal political process. It may have started with women's suffrage in other countries, but it must continue with the active participation of women in the official decision making too. This is in a country where the social status of women is largely on par with that of men.

The political reforms of 2004 smoothed the progress in increasing Korean women's representation in politics, including the first female prime minister in 2006. This built on earlier movements that began in the mid-1990s, like the efforts of the Women's Solidarity for a Quota System and other women's citizen groups.

Something that makes the Korean party system unique is the fact that the political parties are frequently shuffled, disbanded and created, even though they may consist of largely the same individuals with the same political leanings. What's more, strong region-based voting makes it difficult for minor parties to garner enough support to elect members to the National Assembly.  The old one-ballot system was replaced by a two-ballot system that allowed for more proportionate representation.

In the Improving Electoral Practices chapter about Tunisia, written by Amor Boubakri, efforts to improve inclusion of marginalized social groups are explored. Even though a newly independent Tunisia in the late 1950s was founded with universal suffrage, the “new elite” moved down a path of political exclusion. Electoral fraud ran rampant and citizens were offered a false democracy.

This eventually sparked the revolution of 2011, which then provided the opportunity for political reform. This helped to overturn the majoritarian system that had dominated the country for over five decades, providing for a more equitable representation of political parties. Where opposition parties failed to win any seats in the past, they were finally having their voice heard. Inclusion and representation of women, youth and people from marginalized regions continues to improve. 

If there is to be better representation of minor parties in democracies around the world, a valuable step to achieve it could be the modernisation of electoral processes with technology. Using touchscreen machines or electronic ballots, more parties and candidates could be more easily accommodated than with traditional paper ballots. The same can be said about online voting. When combined with citizen-led campaigns and widespread political reforms, the results of elections can better mirror the true will of the people, regardless of social status, region, gender or political leaning.