Vviewpoints
DOI: 10.1145/2240236.2240251
Viewpoint
Internet elections:
unsafe in any home?
SeVeral cOuntrIeS haVe ex- perimented with Internet elections. While voters in Estonia could use the Inter- net in their 2007 national
election for parliament, 3, 7 other countries have offered this option for local
elections only. The argument in favor of
allowing voting over the Internet is that
this may increase voter participation,
which has dropped in many countries
in recent years. Another key argument
is that Internet elections can increase
access for people with disabilities. Furthermore, some people feel that Internet elections are an inevitable case of
allowing democracy to enter the Internet world along with shopping, banking, and many other applications.
One argument against voting on the
Internet is that it cannot guarantee the
anonymity that a voting booth can provide. This can lead to coercion and the
buying and selling of votes. Even more
serious is the risk that someone may
tamper with the voting or the results.
This risk is aggravated by the fact that
voting could be performed from a computer that has malware installed.
In order to overcome such obstacles
the Ministry of Local Government in
Norway launched a $40 million project (“e-valg 2011”) in 2009 to design an
electronic voting system to be used in
the 2011 local elections. The system is
based on experience from other countries, and is comparable to the Estonian system. Experts from academia,
research institutions, and industry
were engaged in the development of
a secure system, and to check the pro-
posed solutions. To prevent pressure
for voting against one’s wish, the sys-
tem allowed repeated voting. The In-
ternet option was closed one day prior
to the election, voters always had the
option to cast their vote at a polling
station, and the voter’s last vote would
always override any previous votes. To
counter malware and other risks, an
advanced cryptographic system was
employed. 2 An important part of this
is a coding system designed to prevent
vote tampering.
