Washminster

Washminster
Washminster

Saturday 11 October 2014

Online Voting



C-SPAN recently aired a discussion about Online voting. Damon Wilson of the Atlantic Council introduced the programme - which highlights that organisations recent report on online voting by saying-

"IN A WORLD OF NEAR INFINITE COMPUTING POWER, UBIQUITOUS CONNECTIVITY, CLOUD BASED SERVICES, BIG DATA, WHERE ALMOST EVERY TASK  CAN BE EXECUTED ONLINE, THE FACT THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF COUNTRIES HOLD ELECTIONS USING PAPER BALLOTS SEEMS TO BE AN ANOMALY. ONLINE VOTING AND E-VOTING HAS THE OBVIOUS BUT STILL LARGELY UNPROVEN POTENTIAL TO IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY  FOR THE DISABLED AND ELDERLY,  MAKE LONG DISTANCE VOTING FAR  EASIER, CUT COSTS AND IMPROVE VOTER TURNOUT ESPECIALLY FOR YOUNGER GENERATIONS AND ALTHOUGH THE ADOPTION OF MOST TECHNOLOGIES, NEW TECHNOLOGIES - IT TAKES TIME, IT TAKES  EFFORT,  E-VOTING BENEFITS  IN TERMS OF REACH, ACCESS AND PARTICIPATION HAS THE POWER TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS AROUND THE WORLD. INDEED SEVERAL COUNTRIES HAVE  IMPLEMENTED SUCCESSFUL E-VOTING SYSTEMS ALREADY - INCLUDING BRAZIL, ESTONIA, AND  SWITZERLAND.

The Report can be downloaded in PDF format from here.

The C-SPAN programme is available at
http://www.c-span.org/video/?321996-1/discussion-online-voting-risks-rewards

What are your thoughts?