US voters risk being left behind by today’s voting systems

It’s not a surprise to say that the majority of America’s existing voting machines are dangerously outdated. The nation is approaching the most important election in history and unfortunately the voting system is putting voters at risk. 

A recently Smartmatic research underlined the connection between inconvenient voting processes with outdated technologies and decreased voter participation. A stunning 81% of respondents felt changes needed to be made to the US voter experience and voting system, meaning that a majority view the current voting system as inefficient and discourages Americans from voting.

The same research also points out three priorities for voters, with 33% stating that the most needed change is to “incorporate online remote voting,” 28% declaring that “US voting technology should be updated to be ‘user-friendly,’” and 20% believes that “the voting process should be made more efficient by reducing the amount of time necessary to cast a vote.” Even President Obama himself referenced the challenges facing voters when he called for voting to be made easier, not harder, for all Americans, during his final State of the Union address.

Considering that the most recent presidential elections were all decided by margin points, a significant voter turnout can define the future of U.S. In fact it’s strange that in a country where you can do almost everything online, the voting system, a pillar of any democracy, still relies on outdated technology or even paper. So, it’s not a matter of if but when. The entire election process needs to be modernized and bring the U.S to the 21st century. 

Lessons from the EVOTE 2014 International Conference

Issues related to the administration of a local, regional or national election may sound like they would only be the concern of the locality, region or country where the election is being held, but this is never quite the case. No part of the world exists in true isolation and great lessons can be learned through the collaboration of great minds around the globe.

And it is with this kind of philosophy and mission that EVOTE2014 was hosted at Castle Hofen in Lochau / Bregenz, Austria. The sixth international conference was held from October 28 to October 31, 2014 and it was attended by some 100 representatives from 33 countries from five different continents. Several topics related to electronic voting technology were discussed and presented at the conference.

It was noted, for instance, that many of the major advances and expansions in e-voting technology have come from developing countries, particularly in Latin America, rather than from more established democracies where more “traditional” manual elections have a stronger foothold. Estonia is widely viewed as a leader in pushing i-voting technology forward, along with developments in countries like Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador. 

Of particular interest at the EVOTE2014 conference was the submission by Julia Pomares, Director of Political Institutions at the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC), in collaboration with Guillermo Lopez Mirau, Teresa Shepherd and California Institute of Technology's R. Michael Alvarez. Winner of the Best Paper Award at the EVOTE 2014 conference, the paper focuses on the experience of Salta district in Argentina where e-voting was rolled out to the entire electorate in 2013.

A big lesson from that election is that it is of critical importance that the electorate has confidence in integrity of the election process and supports e-voting technology. If the public does not support the implementation of e-voting technology or it does not trust how such technology is being used, then further strides in advancing and improving electronic voting technology will stall or be hindered. 

Positive perception of the voting process and the belief that the voting system is easy to use are of great importance. Furthermore, people who have more positive views of technology in daily life are generally more positive about how e-voting is changing how elections are run around the world. 

The final programme for EVOTE2014 followed the overall conference theme of verifying the vote. While electronic voting technology can be used very successfully in quickly and efficiently counting the votes, in addition to voting machines being used for auditable ballot submissions, these votes must also be suitably verified in order to maintain the privacy, confidentiality and integrity of the final tallied results. 

At EVOTE2014, a workshop was held covering 10 pillars of end-to-end online voting verifiability, for example, while another session discussed how verifiable Internet voting works in Estonia. Other sessions included a talk by Vanessa Teague from the University of Melbourne on Trust and Verifiability in Australian E-voting, a session hosted by Rajeev Gore and Thomas Meumann on verified vote-counting, and a panel discussion on public attitudes toward Internet voting in Greece, particularly on the issue of verifiable e-voting. 

While each region, each nation and each service provider will continue to make their own decisions in regards to how e-voting and i-voting are best administered, international conferences like EVOTE2014 provide the perfect platform for these industry leaders to meet, collaborate and discuss the pertinent issues.

Nigeria on its way to e-voting

Source: Flickr - Ford Fundation

Nigeria has a lengthy history of flawed elections and has often been at the brunt of jokes about the voting process. In fact, the 2011 national elections in Nigeria were marked by accusations of fraud, court challenges and violence that resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of people being displaced from their homes before military intervention put an end to the looting, burning and bombings. No doubt, it is well past time to put an accurate system in place to curb the violence and count all of the people's votes!  

This most recent election seemed clearly decisive as the winner, Goodluck Jonathan, received 58% of the vote. However, irregularities like stolen ballot boxes and fake ballots were widespread; this drove further wedges into the country, separating sectional interests like the Muslim north and the Christian south, as each group suspected the other of tampering with the votes. The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has said that electronic voting needs to be in place for the 2015 national elections, as it offers a more accurate and transparent method for counting the votes of the people.

In an attempt to move toward more accurate and peaceful elections that the people will have confidence in, on July 23rd the House of Representatives attempted to vote via electronic device about some constitutional changes that were being considered.

Each member received an iPad to be used as an electronic voting device intended to register the votes of each individual lawmaker. Because this system allowed each vote to become public knowledge, it was expected that legislators would strictly follow their constituent's wishes that were made known during the Peoples Public Sessions around the country--when all of the glitches were worked out of the computerized program.Vanguard reported that if the voting process did not seem transparent, it would ruin the efforts of this seventh assembly.

Problems arose with the new electronic voting system that was installed by Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat) as it appeared many of the lawmakers had difficulties with the voting devices, causing the speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal to make a public plea for patience, saying “what is worth doing is worth doing well.” and promising that “they would do everything transparently.”

In the end, the legislators resorted to the old method of manual voting. There were challenges because the voting procedures were lengthy and some of the lawmakers had not fully charged their devices, or familiarized themselves with their use. However, this exercise does show that Nigeria is serious about moving forward with new technologies that promise maximum accuracy and transparency in the voting process, and there is time before the 2015 national elections to get all the bugs worked out. After all, automation will only improve election administration, transparency and avoid violence if, and only if, the execution is flawless and results are deemed legitimate. Maybe Nigeria should find an experienced provider with advanced, verifiable technology to accomplish this.