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.
