E-Voting: Opportunity or Threat?

HOW THE USE OF ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS COULD POSITIVELY IMPACT ON DEMOCRACIES AND WHAT COULD BE THEIR POTENTIAL DRAWBACKS E-VOTING: OPPORTUNITY OR THREAT?

Eugenio Ciliberti ELSA Alumnus

The Covid-19 emergency has raised new issues with regards to the exercise of democracy: in particular, concerns were expressed on new opportunities for citizens to cast their electoral votes in a safe and efficient manner and led to new perspectives in the long-standing debate on e-voting. However quick and accurate this method will result if implemented, there still is some criticism as to its credibility. Initially used in the US, it then spread to other countries such as Brazil, India and the Philippines, as well as Estonia, where internet voting has been used since 2007. In other European countries, such as France and Belgium, electronic voting systems are used in a few districts, whilst in others, for example, Germany and the Netherlands, they were adopted and soon afterwards ruled out after they proved themselves to be insecure and not sufficiently transparent. Despite their application may end up being controversial and causing high risks of fraud, the benefits of these systems should not be underestimated. The most elementary one is that digital technology can be a worthwhile investment: several expenditures would occur to purchase the equipment, train staff, update the software to prevent cyberattacks and secure equipment storage between elections, but the outcome would eliminate cases of multiple votes and guarantee the fairness of voting procedures through the use of biometric identification. Further advantages concern the various phases of the voting process: voter registration, voter identity verification, vote casting, vote counting, results from transmission and tabulation. Digital voting would highly simplify these moments and facilitate the operations in an easy and time-saving way. Also, the use of technology and internet voting would help solve the crucial problem of low turnouts: in fact, voters physically unable to reach the polling station will be able to cast their ballot online. Furthermore, such systems would enable voters to verify that their vote is cast as intended, correctly recorded and counted: they would not have a marginal role in this process but would be at the very core of it. Finally, a relevant position is occupied by the importance of testing and verification of the technologies used: tests would be carried out by independent and competent bodies, as well as by the machines’ manufacturers, with the aim to prevent the possible frauds that will take place. Although the advantages of these methods are many, drawbacks must be carefully considered. First, the vulnerability to malware and other external attacks of the devices adopted should not be minimized: this has been the case in many elections and in the

Netherlands brought e-voting activists to drop this system. Connected to this situation is the malfunction of these technologies, which could delay the process and spoil its outcome; and even when it works, e-voting is not infallible and could fail at any stage of the procedures, often resulting in the elections being annulled. Auditability is a fundamental matter too because when the only record of a vote is digital, there is a chance of it being lost irretrievably, usually due to hacking. Overall, the value of electronic voting would be none of these technologies do not comply with the principles set out in Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, consisting in every citizens’ right and opportunity “to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of electors”. In the absence of any other international standards addressing the specific characteristics of digital voting, the Council of Europe has adopted a recommendation on standards for e-voting, including the following indications: voters should be reliably identified; voter interfaces should be easy to understand and use for all voters; voters should have the chance to confirm their vote before casting it; after casting their vote, voters should be able to check that it has been correctly cast; voting should be anonymous; all aspects of the vote must be fully transparent; electronic voting systems must be tested and certified by an independent body. These basic criteria, alongside the best practices from States that have succeeded in implementing these systems, show the path for an evolution of the way we conceive democracy. New technologies, in fact, could also lead to a change in citizen participation, affecting the possibility of strengthening citizens’ voice in politics and governance, creating political spaces for activism, promoting increased government accountability and providing avenues of communication to public officials. Strengthening community voice in public debate and decisionmaking is a key factor in strengthening the demand for public participation, accountability and transparency and e-voting could be an essential part of this process: in this sense, civil society actors have a major role in raising awareness and building understanding of the potential of ICTs in the implementation of democratic principles and practice. In addition, on the institutional level, a regulatory policy positively impacting both the ICT infrastructure and the social and political climate – including freedom of information and expression – would contribute to creating the ideal environment for the proper development of electronic voting systems.