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Despite technological advancements, many countries remain hesitant to fully embrace digital voting systems with concerns such as security, accessibility, and trust playing a part.
Many tables this year would have seen the topic of elections during dinner. Many elections occur worldwide, and the results determine the fate of nations and regions.
The most significant ones occurred in top global economies ranging from the European Union to the United States of America. However, among the election frenzy talk, one subject that never fails to come up is how the voting takes place.
In a highly digital world, one would expect that we would be able to vote for our preferred candidate on our phones, effectively changing the nation’s governmental direction just by clicking a button.
Yet, surprisingly, many nations around the world, even the most advanced, are not remotely close to considering making such accessibility a possibility.
Digital voting encompasses any method that uses electronic technology to facilitate the casting and counting of votes. Estonia remains the pioneer and leader in online voting and used its i-Voting system this year, allowing citizens to vote online from anywhere using their electronic ID cards.
During its Presidential election, Russia used remote e-voting for the first time. About 4.76 million Russians were expected to cast their ballots online, causing the system to crash on the very first day due to the volume of users it experienced.
In India, electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used with nearly 5.5 million of them being deployed across 1.05 million polling stations. Following a 2011 Supreme Court directive, Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) systems were used alongside EVMs to provide a paper trail for verification.
Many authorities have looked to digital voting as a medium of advancement in the electoral process. Such systems significantly reduce the time required to count votes and announce results.
Unlike traditional paper ballots, which require manual counting, electronic systems can table votes almost instantly, leading to quicker election outcomes. Moreover, built-in validation mechanisms can automatically detect invalid votes, such as overvotes or undervotes.
Additionally, it makes it easier for individuals facing physical or geographical barriers to participate in elections. Features such as remote voting options enable citizens living abroad or those with disabilities to cast their votes conveniently. Voting nihilism would also become a less palpable problem.
With technology encompassing our everyday lives, why hasn’t digital voting been made accessible digitally, though?
