What do we want from e-Voting?
Stuart Anderson
School of Informatics
e-voting
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Properties like …
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Accuracy: Do we choose individual criteria or more socialised
criteria?
Confidentiality: we all know the current system isn’t – how hard
should it be to discover how an individual (or group) voted?
Availability: given US experience it seems like “rationing” of
timeslots could be a real issue.
From a dependability perspective the scope of the system we
consider is critical and getting requirements right at that level:
– We want e-voting to provide part of the mechanism to implement
democracy.
– Democracy: "[T]he democratic method is that institutional
arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals
acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for
the people's vote." Schumpeter (1942)
e-voting
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Democracy is in crisis … (perhaps)
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The Power Enquiry, published today:
– http://www.powerinquiry.org/
– How can democracy survive when we feel politicians don’t listen?
– How can politics be revived when fewer and fewer of us support
political parties?
– How can voting be encouraged if millions see elections as a
charade?
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Elections Minister Harriet Harman will introduce measures to
combat voting fraud ahead of local elections next May.
ballot papers with security marks and barcodes to enable quick
security checks.
In 2004 the electoral commissioner said postal voting was "wide
open to fraud".
Six Labour councillors in Birmingham stepped down after Sir
Richard Mawrey found evidence of postal ballot abuse that he
said would disgrace a "banana republic".
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Social hazards of e-voting
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Schumpeter again: … by means of a competitive struggle for the
people's vote.
It needs to be a struggle, so e-voting shouldn’t be too easy.
Emphasis is often on issues like:
– Large scale fraud of ballot papers
– Coercion at the point of voting
– Rationing access to voting: registration, supply of machines,
bandwidth etc.
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Maybe a bigger hazard is making it easy enough for unengaged
people to vote.
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The case of Sweden
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Traditionally high level of voter participation pre 1998, around
85%, 1998 – 77% and dropping.
Ny Demokrati, or New Democracy (abbreviated Nyd), was a
Swedish right-wing political party represented in the Riksdag
between 1991 and 1994.
Campaigned for election to the national parliament on an agenda
of populism, xenophobia, racism and neoliberal economic policy.
Opinion polls showed the party getting more than 10 % support.
On the election day, it received 6 % of the national vote.
Posed a serious problem in a PR environment.
Many in Sweden felt it presaged growing youth disillusionment
with democracy.
Swedes can vote very easily – long voting period, voting at the
post office, …
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Summary
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Too many politicians see easing the voting process as a way of
“fixing” democracy.
E-voting is seen as an essential tool
Many potentially ignored properties of e-voting system may be
essential if we are to maintain some kind of stability in the
competitive struggle for votes.
e-voting
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