What is Electronic Voting

Background Voting Information

For some quick perspective, we’re going to be talking about voting in the United States. This process may vary from country to country in both when and how voting is done, as well as if it is compulsory or optional.

In the United States, each state has it’s own separate laws, which are enacted within voting precincts. This means there is not a standardized methodology used. Some rules for in place based upon federal laws and/or the constitution, however, many options are up to the states and local voting precincts.

Voting in the United States is optional. You do not have to register to vote, not do you have to vote if you are registered. Voting is typically done in person, although you may vote by mail in absentee. Most states allow for early voting, however the number of days varies, however typically it is done for one to two weeks before the actual voting date.

In the United States, you are guaranteed an anonymous ballot, meaning that your vote is not known to anyone but yourself. Likewise, each vote is only counted once.

For the purpose of this discussion, we’re not going to discuss election cycles, electoral ballots, and/or campaign finances or any of the complicated discussions that go on with those topics. We want to focus on the simple process of voting.

The Old Method

Now, this is the time in the discussion I have to swear I am not that old. I promise. However…

When I started to vote as a young adult, voting was a bit different. There was no early voting (unless getting to the poll station when it opened was considered early), and you had to request a mail in ballot – to which there were limited reasons which it was allowed.

When I went to vote the first time, I headed to my polling location. I noticed an interesting thing along the way. I had to pass three different polling locations on my way to my polling location. My polling location was closer “as the crow flies” but not as I drove, as driving through people’s houses is generally considered a bad thing.

This led me to start thinking about how can we simplify this process of voting. I thought about it as a young college student every time I went to vote, and passed a polling location that was closer to me as the car drives, until I finally moved and got a polling location that was within walking distance to my house. (Then I moved again, and once again, it’s not that close…)

What is E-Voting

Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots. Depending on the particular implementation, e-voting may use standalone electronic voting machines (also called EVM) or computers connected to the Internet (online voting). It may include a range of Internet services, from basic transmission of tabulated results to full-function online voting through common connectable household devices. The degree of automation may be limited to marking a paper ballot, or may be a comprehensive system of vote input, vote recording, data encryption and transmission to servers, and consolidation and tabulation of election results. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting

Electronic voting technology can include everything from punched cards, optical scan voting systems and specialized voting kiosks (including self-contained direct-recording electronic voting systems – DRE). It can also involve transmission of ballots and votes via telephones, private computer networks, or the Internet.

Some Basic Ideas

Now, part of the reason for having so many polling locations is first to simplify the number of people waiting to poll. But it also allows people to vote for the correct candidates. You may live just down the street from a friend of yours, but because of how your local city and/or county is divided up, you might have different city/county/state commissioners, or what ever they might be called in your district.

An basic electronic system would allow your ID to be read in, and a ballot be digitally displayed to you to based upon that information. This allows no mistakes in who you can vote for. This means no driving past three polling locations on the way to yours. It’s easier on the environment (less unnecessary driving), more convenient (you can do it on the way to do your shopping, not head in the opposite direction of everything else you do), etc.

You can also get even more advanced, in that you could have Internet Voting, and vote from your home/office/etc using your phone, computer, etc. You could simple sign in, vote from your recliner, kitchen table, etc, and go on about your day. It’s even more environmentally friendly as you don’t have to leave your house if you don’t want to.

Pros and Cons

In the next couple of sections, we’re going to look at some ethical pros and cons of allowing this type of use of technology, and how we can move forward with it in the best manner.

What is Electronic Voting was originally found on Access 2 Learn