Bulgarian E-Voting Referendum Opens Overseas Polling Stations

Technology has become an integral part of just about every aspect of contemporary society. Computers are used in nearly every line of work, smartphone adoption is at an all-time high, and a growing number of tasks are being performed over the Internet, including online banking and passport renewals. The use of technology in elections is also growing on a global scale.

In Bulgaria, a referendum was proposed last year that would posit three questions as they related to elections in the Balkan nation. Since that time, the referendum has been further revised to include only one question to be asked of the Bulgarian people: are they in favor of or are they opposed to the adoption of electronic voting technology in future elections? This may also include the possibility of remote e-voting too.

While it may have once been assumed that the people of Bulgaria would only be able to vote in this referendum if they are physically present at a polling station in Bulgaria that was not the case when the referendum was held on October 25. Indeed, 312 polling stations were opened in 45 countries around the world to allow Bulgarians to voice their opinion on the issue from abroad. These included polling stations in such nations as the United States, Germany and Turkey, among dozens of others.

The point here is that the results of this referendum and the profound ramifications that it could have on the electoral process in Bulgaria affect not only the people who live and work in the country itself, but also for expatriates and overseas workers. Expatriate voting has become a hot issue in recent months with dramatic changes in Canada and an increased push for voting for Swiss living abroad. By opening the referendum to Bulgarians in 45 other countries, the government has clearly indicated that expatriate and absentee opinion matters.

The referendum also highlights two other important topics. First, it could serve as a viable experiment for how e-voting and remote voting could be best implemented in actual elections and not only in referendums. Second, it could also help to build popular interest in the advancement of e-voting in the nation of Bulgaria and for Bulgarians living abroad.

The potential was there. The opportunity was there. This referendum could have marked a major milestone for Bulgaria, helping to propel its democracy ahead today and into the future.

Unfortunately, despite the efforts of opening overseas polling stations and working to increase public interest in the mechanics of democracy, the referendum ultimately did not live up to its promise. This was attributed to insufficient voter turnout. Even though 69.5 percent of those who participated did vote in favor of remote online voting, only 40 percent of eligible voters responded to the referendum.

The laws are such that the voter turnout must be at least at the same level as that of the last parliamentary elections. In this case, 48.66 percent of voters turned out for the 2014 parliamentary elections and thus the referendum came up nearly 9 percent short of this mark.

President Rosen Plevneliev is undeterred, stating that “voters want to be asked and expect to be heard.” Even though the results of the referendum are not binding, Plevneliev says that it would be a “big political mistake” to ignore them. And so, the saga toward increased e-voting and remote e-voting in Bulgaria continues. If nothing else, this referendum indicates that voter apathy must be addressed and the issues surrounding technology in the democratic process must continue to be pushed to the forefront of the conversation. 

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. 

Scytl’s 2014: Annus horribilis, or may be not

2014 was a peculiar year for the noisiest, albeit not the only Spanish company specialized in voting technology and solutions. Despite some major setbacks resulting from ill-developed voting solutions, it managed to close a $104 million financing round this year.

Image: Pixabay

The year had a bumpy start for Scytl. For Ecuador’s 2014 Sectional elections in February, Scytl was to deliver a solution that would help the Ecuadorian Election Commission to process the tallying of the votes with the goal that results could be announced within 72 hours after closing the polls. Yet, one whole month after the election was over, Scytl was still counting votes and was still unable to provide final results. In the mean time, Ecuadorian authorities were confronting the herculean task of convincing public opinion that the results would “soon be announced”- were legit. As a result of the scandal and ensuing public unrest, Domingo Paredes, head of the electoral management body, declared that the Election Commission had unilaterally terminated the contract, demanded payment of guarantees, and began taking legal actions against the company. Oddly enough, after the fanfare published in Scytl's website news in February and March about projects "in the works" as if the February election had been "a successful implementation", there has been a complete silence on Ecuador the following months.

A few months later (June) Norway —one of the countries leading the crusade to make internet voting a reality, and a client of the Barcelona-based company—, halted i-voting experiments amid security fears. As evidenced in the video posted by the Norway electoral authorities (2:31:13), the secrecy of 54% of the vote was in fact compromised during the September 2013 pilot due to a bug in the encryption key. These cryptography issues were also reported in the Expert Study Mission Report from the Carter Center.

Even though bad news are the ones usually travelling faster, neighboring Peru seems not to have found out about Ecuador’s ordeal with Scytl. And only five months after the infamous incident aforementioned, the National Office for Electoral Processes (ONPE) of Peru experienced first-hand the mishaps of a poorly designed in-site Internet voting solution. In August, while conducting an Internet voting pilot using Scytl technology, voters ran into all sorts of trouble to cast a ballot. In spite of the simplicity of the contest –only 186 polling centers serving 34,672 voters– the company was once more unable to deliver up to the expectations.  

To cap off the year, on October 27, Scytl ran into trouble once again— this time staged by its branch in Canada, while providing its internet voting platform for elections in 20 Ontario municipalities.

According to the company, five election files had been mislabeled due to human error, creating tabulations problems that delayed results. On November 6, the 20 municipalities got together to discuss the issues and demand explanations. Scytl apologised and offered a discount of 25% from the charges for their services, plus a 10% discount on a future project, as if Ontario's woes were of financial nature. Read more here.

In spite of all these incidents, Scytl managed to raise over 100 million dollars from capital investors. Among them: Vy Capital, Vulcan Capitan and Sapphire Ventures, formerly SAP Ventures – the independent venture capital firm associated to Europe’s largest software company.

Scytl’s PR department deserves a standing ovation for not allowing such a poor track of performances ruin a financing round; especially in the age of global communications and instant scandals when such blunders happen.

Is Canada’s conservative government limiting online voting for selfish reasons?

Source: Google Images

It is understandable that some people can be quite sceptical about voting technology systems. They may have concerns about the security and confidentiality of such systems, but it has been proved that if the chosen technology is robust, secure and auditable you can indeed improve transparency and efficiency in your country’s electoral processes, as well as increase voter confidence and participation. E-voting can also save governments a great deal of money. However, it looks like the Conservative government in Canada could be holding back this technology for self-serving reasons.

Bill C-23, also known as the Fair Elections Act, is being proposed as part of the Conservative government's new elections act in Canada. There are several provisions included in the proposed act and one of these would make it more difficult for Elections Canada to experiment with online voting and other electronic voting technologies. With the current law, alternative voting methods can be tested as long as the chief electoral officer gains the approval of the parliamentary committees that oversee elections.

If the Fair Elections Act is approved and goes into law, however, then these tests would first need to gain the approval of both the House of Commons and the Senate. Given that the Conservative Party of Canada currently has control of the Senate, they could presumably refuse to authorize any tests for online voting that are put forth by Elections Canada.

The reason why this Act is self-serving, according to NDP Democratic Reform critic Craig Scott is that “e-voting is something [the Conservatives] know appeals to younger generations, which is not necessarily their voting cohort.”

While not always true, it is generally understood that younger demographics are the ones that are more likely to gravitate to and embrace voting technologies, while older generations are more likely to prefer more traditional methods. As it stands, older generations are also more likely to vote Conservative than their younger counterparts. If a larger number of youth voters cast their ballots, the elections could swing away from the Conservative Party.

The only way that electronic voting and online voting can move forward in Canada is if Elections Canada is granted the ability to conduct pilot projects to test out these technologies. By adding another layer of bureaucracy, one in which the Conservatives would first have to give their stamp of approval, they could be stifling progress in the country. This is particularly troublesome when you consider that members of the Senate are not elected, but are actually appointed.

Even beyond online voting and electronic voting, the Fair Elections Act proposal could also limit the ability for students to vote at the polls, because it would place more stringent restrictions on the current vouching system in Canada. The same is true for several other demographics, like minority voters and low-income families, who may not be able to qualify for traditional eligibility, but should still have every right to vote.

As it stands, Canada has already stopped any plans of an Internet voting pilot program in 2015, further impeding progress in the country to modernize its electoral system and bring it in line with current technology. If passed, the Fair Elections Act will make it more difficult than ever to evolve from the archaic manual, paper-based system for casting ballots. 

Canada abandons Internet voting and goes back to manual elections

Toronto. Image: FreeDigitalPhotos

Canada has halted its plans to carry out an Internet voting pilot in 2015, in spite of earlier signs of approval of this electoral method. The decision is allegedly due to budget cuts, as Elections Canada has been subjected to a loss of $7.5 million per year. 

Security was another reason Canada’s electoral body refrained from moving forward. Although they had had some success in previous experiences with Internet voting, the risk of massive tampering and identity theft are still an issue. 

Unfortunately, turning back to manual voting is far from an ideal solution as irregularities have been documented in previous elections.

The electoral body of the North American country has acknowledged that irregularities have actually been found in manual voting. After the 2011 federal poll, it was discovered that election officers had made more than 500 serious procedural errors, and paperwork was deficient in more than 165,000 cases. Having weighed between two unreliable options, wouldn’t it be time to think of one that really works? With voting machines, Canada would have a real chance of holding fully auditable elections, devoid of human error, instead of switching back to a system that has been admittedly faulty.

Implementing voting machines would actually be the way to reduce the organization costs of upcoming polls, now that the electoral body cites budget constraints as grounds for returning to manual voting. Even though the initial implementation of an e-voting platform is a high investment, it represents savings in the long run. For example: voting machines do not require paper ballots, which cost millions of dollars to produce each time. If there is a sudden change in the electoral event, touchscreen devices make it easier to make the necessary adjustments without further investment.

Canada shut the door to automation for no other reason than not having exhausted all possibilities. Safe, reliable electoral technology is still out there, waiting to be implemented and to radically improve people’s participation in Democracy.

Case Studies of Internet-Based Electronic Voting in Canada

Source: Elections Canada

Electronic voting systems can take on many different forms. Some only involve the electronic counting of paper ballots. Others use touchscreen voting terminals. Taking another monumental leap forward is the concept of Internet-based electronic voting. This can free up resources, be more cost effective, and be more accessible since voters never have to leave the comfort of their homes and offices.

Internet voting appears to be picking up in popularity in many parts of the world and one country that is gradually adopting it more and more is Canada. Here are a few examples.

British Columbia Liberal Leadership

In early 2011, the Liberal Party of British Columbia held its leadership vote by using technology from a phone and Internet voting company. To help ensure that the ballots were accurate and free of fraud, the voting members each received a PIN code that would provide them with voting access, not unlike a normal voter registration process. Votes could then be cast online or by telephone.