Internet voting gets the Oxford blues

By Graeme Wearden, ZDNet.co.uk, 25 June, 2003 13:21

NEWS

Advocates and opponents of electronic voting locked horns in Oxford on Monday, at a debate about the thorny issue of e-elections. The audience for the debate, which was held at the Oxford Union and was also Webcast, heard that allowing people to vote remotely, rather than having to fill in a piece of paper at a polling station, would give a boost to democratic participation, and was as secure as existing methods. However, these claims were strongly rebutted by other contributors, who said that there are serious and irreconcilable problems with e-voting. And it was this view that carried the day, with those present voting narrowly against the motion that "This House has confidence in voting via the Internet". The motion was proposed by Jim Adler, chief executive of VoteHere, a US company that produces e-voting software. Adler said that an election conducted using e-voting systems was safe and secure, and that people would be able to check that their vote has been counted. This voter verification, Adler claimed, ensures the validity of an electronic election. Advocates of digital democracy say that e-voting -- whether online, by mobile phone or at electronic kiosks in supermarkets and pubs -- will increase democratic participation by making it easier for citizens to make their electoral choice. Many trials have been conducted in recent years, including in both this year's and last year's local elections in the UK. According to Adler, some of these experiments have shown encouraging results. "Places that have trialled e-voting are reporting back that they've seeing more innovation in electoral participation in two years than in the previous 20," Adler said. "We owe it to our communities to continue developing remote voting, both online and offline." But according to Jason Kitcat, coordinator of the Free e-Democracy Project, e-voting is deeply and inherently flawed. Kitcat said that Internet voting was more expensive than traditional methods and was incapable of delivering free and fair elections. "If there are doubts about the legitimacy of election results, then our democracy will be questioned at both a national and an international level," Kitcat warned. If people are to be allowed to vote online, then there needs to be a way of registering the identity of each voter. Otherwise, one person could vote many times by pretending to be someone else. Kitcat claimed that such identification systems would be both expensive and ultimately unworkable. "You could use smart cards, but it's very expensive to make then and get them into the hands of people. Then, you need to provide smart card readers -- again you've got to get the readers out to everyone who wants to vote, and provide the necessary software drivers. And, even if you do that, you find that smartcards don't actually authenticate users, they just authenticate computers," said Kitcat. Biometric identification could be used, but would pose risks of its own if a database of fingerprints or irises were hacked into and compromised. "You can't just issue new fingerprints, or new eyes. So, the government would have spent a lot of money on something that was suddenly useless," Kitcat said. Kitcat also claimed that the only way of attempting to tell whether an e-voting system had been interfered with during an election would be to log every keystroke made by every user, but that would inevitably compromise privacy. "The more information you log to create an audit trail, the more you destroy the confidentiality of the election," he said. One contributor to the debate pointed out that e-voting could be biased against voters who could not afford a PC, or were unwilling or unable to use one. Another, though, said that if politicians want the public to be involved in elections, then there needs to be as many methods of doing so as possible. The UK government has said it wants to include e-voting in a general election sometime after 2006.

For everything Internet-related, from the latest legal and policy-related news, to domain name updates, see ZDNet UK's Internet News Section. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

Don't forget to check out apps like GoodReader or SlideShark either, they're indispensible for people on the go in presentation situations. Best...

1 hour ago by tinycg on Four top iPad apps for people on the move

Well it seems there is something a number of us agree on. Why is the Ubuntu Unity launcher so ugly? I thought perhaps it was something to do with...

6 hours ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Duplicate comments are not made intentionally. Its very good to know that now you are keeping check on this problem because sometimes a commenter...

16 hours ago by Freebies202 on Microsoft fixes blog comments, speeds up blogs with open source

"the very significant number of users" and "many (most) of us" - you have no evidence for these statements. It is a fact that most users are saying...

24 hours ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Another grammar faux pas is the improper use of "you". When sitting down down in a restaurant, for example, I get cringe when the waitress...

1 day ago by Marg Menzies Harrison via Facebook on 10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid

And NOW, folks, for Canonical's next trick... Kubuntu is late. Here's a pencil. Draw your own conclusions. cf.:...

1 day ago by zdnetukuser on Linux Minterface

@kevinmchapman. The discussion here reflects the very significant number of users who really do like the traditional menu system and who wish to...

1 day ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Er, no... It is an efficient means of finding the application/file/setting you need in one place. The icons are a simply a fallback for when you...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Isn't the provision of a text based search an admission by the developers that the mass of icons approach does not work? I don't need to use a...

1 day ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

"Unity and GNOME 3 both abandon the old text-based cascading menus in favour of a graphical icon-driven system." Point truly missed. Both use a...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

whs001 - Thank you, I'm glad you liked the article. I absolutely agree with you on your first point. I should perhaps have made it clearer that...

1 day ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

If we allow corporate interest to dictate the way our government circumvents due process against foreign entities then we should accept the same...

1 day ago by Dennis Nilsson via Facebook on ACTA stumbles in Germany

I totally dislike pirating of works, I fear that artists will be deterred from creating works if they think that they are going to get ripped off....

1 day ago by GHar123 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

2 days ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

2 days ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

2 days ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

2 days ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

2 days ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Excellent article. One small correction, though--although a fresh installation of Linux Mint 12 will, indeed, provide the user with a version of...

2 days ago by bdantas on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

2 days ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Internet voting gets the Oxford blues

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

UK gears up for £18m e-voting trials

Government to push e-voting

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

PHP Web Developer - html, css, javascript

Java Developer, Online Gaming, London

Quant Dev, Hedge Fund, FX, Excel VBA

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Make faster, smarter decisions using BI

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Business of IT / IT Strategy

Internet voting gets the Oxford blues

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features