Can we trust voting online?

Thankfully, the New Zealand government appears not to be pressing ahead with online voting — at least, for now.

An Electoral Amendment Bill was released yesterday, which improves online registration through its RealMe identification service, but nothing appears to have been said about actual online voting itself.

Voting online was always seen as one of those inevitable things as part of an e-transition, as it were, to an online world; something that we all saw as “a good thing”.

But recent events have made me turn against such “progress”.

Having free and fair elections are fundamental to the democratic process, but can we trust such e-ballots?

We have seen in the United States how the government can target political parties of all persuasions through the tax system, and how Republican-controlled states are working to suppress the minority vote through added restrictions.

SOURCE: zdnet.com