WRITTEN ON October 10th, 2004 BY Jason Kitcat AND STORED IN Political engagement

For many e-democracy people e-voting is old hat, it’s been done. I agree… I’ve been studying it since 1999. But still politicians keep pushing it upon us. As Robin Cook muttered to me the other day e-voting’s impact on turnout has been disappointing. People don’t choose not to vote because it’s hard to vote. It’s because they feel their vote doesn’t make a difference, for many people all politicians are the same.

E-Voting is a uniquely difficult problem which unusually requires security, anonyminity and auditability. It’s totally different to e-banking or e-commerce. For those of you who’ve heard it all before, skip to the next Ideal Government post. For those who don’t understand why e-voting isn’t such a good idea then please explore the following links:

• Electronic Voting Doesn’t Work
• On E-Voting & Turnout: Analysing the 2003 reuslts and Why e-voting won’t boost turnout (originally written for sceptical civil servants in the Office of the e-Envoy!)
• Non-technical introduction to the pros and cons of e-voting
• Finally, if William’s earlier plug wasn’t enough, the European Resolution for Voter Verifiable e-voting, endorse it!