Electronic voting on line for 2005 poll

By EUGENE BINGHAM political reporter

Voters could be tapping keys instead of ticking boxes in the 2005 general election - but we are unlikely to be casting votes through our personal computers.

An election taskforce has found that internet technology would probably boost the number of voters, speed the count and reduce costs.

But officials see problems in letting people vote from home and the most likely proposal is for internet facilities to be used at polling places.

Associate Justice Minister Margaret Wilson wants the officials to find a way to improve the voting system after the slow-count shambles for the 1999 election.

The cabinet has already approved measures for the 2002 election, but the Government is looking further ahead.

Chief electoral officer David Henry said the Government would stay with the manual process for the 2002 ballot, but electronic voting could possibly be used in 2005.

He warned that overseas experience and research suggested a need to be cautious, adopting an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach.

"The international research suggests that moving to remote internet voting needs to be looked at extremely carefully," he said.

"A number of issues need to be tackled.

"It's not just a simple matter of saying, 'Well, you can do your bank transactions online therefore you can vote online'."

It would be necessary to find ways of checking the identity of an online voter and ensuring the system was secure.

A Ministry of Justice study obtained by the Herald suggests that the Government monitor trials in Canada and Ireland and consider running pilot schemes in low-risk elections such as for union membership or university voting.

The study shows that the switch from manual to electronic systems is far from straightforward.

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Risks include the potential for hackers to intercept votes and alter or delete them.

"Use of the internet raises the ability to automate vote fraud through programmed attacks," the report said.

Another problem would be the difficulty of giving people the ability to register a "no-vote."

Officials also believe voting from home would give some political parties an advantage.

"The problem with the remote internet model is that it provides unequal access to the voting public. It is more convenient [and acceptable] for prosperous people who have access to the internet from home or office than it is for others who have to travel to a state site and learn how to cast their vote.

"This may lead to unequal representation in those who do vote and increase the voter turnout gaps that exist already."

A solution to many of the issues, including voter identification, would be to have electronic voting at polling stations.

"For electronic voting centralised in polling stations, authorisation and authentication might be handled in a similar way to those used currently.

"In one of the earliest examples, Belgium duplicated the vote on to a swipe card which was collected in the traditional ballot box as a means of cross-checking the computed count."

Electronic voting could also enable voters to be given more information about the candidates and parties.

Photographs of the candidates and policy summaries could be online at the time the vote was taken to jog memories.

Margaret Wilson has said that the changes to the voting system for 2002 were just a transitional step.

The real aim was a shift towards greater technology.

"You don't want to move too quickly, but at the same time we really should be more technologically proficient than we are," she said.

"We want to do it in a considered way."