Entry No.19f

IT Writers Awards

A campaign to sell the benefits of electronic polling has begun, but it may be hard to sway the swinging voters, Selina Mitchell reports.

THEY say democracy is never perfect, but would virtual voting make it more so? Opinions on using online voting for ballots can be as polarised as people's views on who should win the next election: a few regard it as a passing fad, others as corruptible and insecure and more again as a means to making elections fairer, cheaper and faster. But there are many ``swinging voters'' who are watching and waiting to see how small experiments pan out. Voters grumbled about the inconvenience of the 1999 republic referendum, which was not only (and as always) on a weekend, but also on a weekend of Australian participation in a World Cup rugby final and a cricket test match. Future ballots would be much easier if we could just do it from home -- or even better from the office during the week, some bemoaned. And that is exactly how Election. com plans to sell online voting here. The company, which has organised electronic elections in the United States, including the statewide primary for the Arizona Democrats in March, has set up an office in Canberra. The concept of disposable time is high on its selling agenda.

Australia is the first step in its Asia-Pacific run, and the timing could not be better. The ACT Government is currently considering a number of electronic voting options for its October 2001 election and the Federal Government is in the process of placing all appropriate government services online. Most election agencies are still wary of internet-based options, and will need to be convinced of the security, simplicity and reliability of systems before they convert to e-voting, even on a small scale.

But it will happen, Election.com local manager Ian Ahearn says. ``The genie is out of the box -- if it is not Election.com it will be someone else,'' he says. ``Of course it will involve cultural change, but that change is already happening and you can't stand on the edge of technology saying thou shalt not pass.'' But, Ahearn adds, it is certainly a matter of easing the public into using the internet as a voting medium. And with that he quickly lists the advantages of online election options: it can be more inclusive (particularly useful for non-compulsory elections); results are speedy thanks to electronic counting; and it can cut infrastructure costs. Ahearn acknowledges that many people still have concerns about security and privacy, even though the technical solutions are available, he says. So a softly softly approach is required, as are plenty of good working examples of success. ``You can't at this stage replace a total system, but you can nurture people down an electronic path,'' adds Election.com technical director Ian Coombe. And private industry is a good starting point.

Many local companies are considering using electronic proxy voting for shareholder gatherings. In November last year, Coles Myer became the first to provide online voting options in the lead-up to its annual general meeting and it plans to do the same this year. ``Why? It is cheap,'' explains Westpac communications general manager Noel Purcell. ``Paper proxy voting is extremely expensive. Evidence suggests electronic voting is 9 per cent of the cost -- we are certainly looking at it.'' Purcell says functionality is ahead of usage at present. ``To be totally successful, pervasive access to the web is required, but in a few years the method will be very popular,'' he says.
``Security is an issue, but that is relatively easily solved by using several layers of security.'' The electronic option also allows shareholders more control of their investments, Purcell says, a benefit not lost on the Australian Shareholders' Association. ``It is a very good move to facilitate all shareholders, both individuals and institutions, to participate,'' ASA chairman Ted Rofe says. ``Physical attendance at shareholder meetings is very low and even proxy voting is only at about 30 per cent of shareholders, so there is plenty of room for improvement.''  Financial services regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has also outlined its concern about a lack of shareholder participation in company decision-making, particularly given the growing number of Australians owning quoted shares. Its companies and securities advisory committee report on shareholder participation says old-style shareholder meetings are being overtaken by technology. It notes that both direct and proxy electronic voting, thanks to their directness and simplicity, will encourage participation. However, the report notes that there is still debate about whether the right should be automatic, or at the discretion of the company. Those that oppose direct absentee voting argue it will detract from the significance of a physical meeting as a forum for discussion and debate, the report says. And a similar concern has been raised about allowing voters to have their say on government elections via the internet. The trek to the polling booth is one of the few things that involves the whole adult community talking about and doing the same thing at the same time, says political scientist Nick Economou. ``The political and social values of physically voting at a central location on a Saturday and waiting for the results shouldn't be lost,'' he told The Australian earlier this year. And what about the cake stalls, raffles and school fetes geared around voting crowds? On a more practical level, state electoral commissions have noted many unanswered questions: what do you do about all the people who don't own a PC -- set up computers in all polling booths at great expense? How do you verify voter IDs without linking people with particular votes? How do you make people comfortable with voting electronically? How long would it take to change all related legislation? Do you keep some polling stations and where? Do you have a polling week to ensure computer systems don't overload? How do you supply a unique identifier to all voters? The Australian Electoral Commission closely monitors the development of new technologies that may allow for the introduction of internet electronic or automated voting for elections it runs. ``However, the use of compulsory full preferential voting in Australian federal elections, which enjoys wide public support, places additional obstacles to the introduction of electronic voting for federal elections,'' Finance and Administration Minister John Fahey said in Parliament recently. Fahey hinted that Australians were not ready to trust an electronic system: ``The high level of public confidence Australians have in their elections and election results must not be jeopardised, and, therefore, no new technology will be introduced unless the Government believes that the highest standards of security and secrecy can be met.''

Internet access was not yet universal, he noted, but the possible use of datacasting to deliver voting services was being studied. In the US, California's Internet Voting Taskforce reported in January that internet voting would provide increased access to the voting process (in a country where voting is not compulsory this is viewed as a means to fairer,more democratic elections). It adds, however, that there are still ``significant'' threats to the security, integrity and secrecy of internet ballots. ``The possibility of virus and Trojan Horse software attacks on home and office computers used for voting is very real and, although they are preventable, could result in a number of problems ranging from a denial of service to the submission of electronically altered ballots,'' it says. 

But it ends positively: ``Despite these challenges, it is technologically possible to utilise the internet to develop an additional method of voting that would be at least as secure from vote-tampering as the current absentee ballot process in California.'' But at this time, completely replacing the current system is not legally, practically or fiscally feasible, so the elections process will be best served by a strategy of evolutionary rather than revolutionary change, it says. To help ease concerns, Election. com representatives cite the company's success with the Arizona primary in the US, where overall voter participation increased 676 per cent; 80 per cent of voters used the internet option; and each vote could actually be verified by the participant and the collecting agency before it was lodged. But even this is not classed as ``big time'' experience by government representatives. 

The ACT could be the first big test for electronic voting in Australia. Its electoral commission is keen to find ways of speeding up vote counting and election results, which on average take about 10 days to determine. The commission is waiting on the ACT Government to make a decision on various electronic voting models (mostly focused on polling booth-based solutions at this stage). But any decision depends on whether the TransACT broadband data service is up and running across the ACT by election time in October next year, a government spokesman says. Alternatively, electronic voting could be tested in remote locations, such as Antarctica and overseas embassies, Coombe suggests. ``In Antarctica, voting is done by fax, with loads of paper flying back and forth. But it would be a lot easier to do it over the internet, and there are plenty of other remote areas that would benefit from similar electronic systems. ``And about 18 tonnes of material was sent to the UK for the last election -- wouldn't it be much easier to set up internet voting booths, or get them to vote direct from their PC?'' Getting rid of postal ballots, which are an enormous expense, and replacing them with an online system would also be a sensible early step, Coombe says. Sounds good, election officials say, but what about the security, the trust...In other countries the task of convincing such officials may be a little easier, particularly in those where privacy is not an issue for residents. Unisys has run electronic elections in Rome and Brazil, for instance, where people already have identity cards and are not so concerned about the utilisation of personal information. ``Acceptance depends on culture and circumstances,'' Unisys public sector head Jim McGuirk says. He says the US may need to be more receptive to the idea of electronic voting than Australia, despite its citizens' rights focus, in an effort to get more people to vote in its non-compulsory system. Meanwhile, Election.com officials are travelling the country, portable remote voting systems and examples of US success in hand. And as they quickly admit, they won't be alone on the sales trail for long.

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