WRITTEN ON August 7th, 2007 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Political engagement

While I’ve been off partying the Electoral Commission has come out with a strong and welcome statement on e-voting (see for example th exemplary KableNet).

As Open Rights Group pointed out with delightful force and clarity, e-voting is far from ideal. Wibbi we just put a stop to it unless and until there is a Foundation of Trust. That’s pretty much what the Electoral Commission now says too:

The Commission recommends that no further e-voting is undertaken until the following four elements are in place:
• There must be a comprehensive electoral modernisation strategy outlining how transparency, public trust and cost effectiveness can be achieved.
• A central process must be implemented to ensure that sufficiently secure and transparent e-voting solutions that have been tested and approved can be selected by local authorities.
• Sufficient time must be allocated for planning e-voting pilots.
• Individual registration must be implemented. The Commission cannot support any further e-voting in the absence of a framework incorporating these recommendations.

Take heed, you thoughtless non-ideal gung-ho proponents of inevitable mechanisation and modernisation! It’s all going to be fine as long as we listen carefully to the science, bear in mind what we really want, and are able to have a sensible conversation about it.