What’s missing for elections using technology are careful transparency and scrutiny measures to help mitigate risks and build trust.
Reuters/Charles Mostoller
Elections worldwide are becoming increasingly dependent on technology. But, typically, the electronic systems adopted suffer from weak transparency and scrutiny even when the outcome is challenged.
Where problems arose, voting was generally able to keep going smoothly. But those failures serve as a warning of how bad things could get if we don't replace our voting machines soon.
How secure is your vote?
Hands with votes illustration via shutterstock.com
While voter fraud - despite recent allegations - is rare, how do we ensure the ballots we cast are counted accurately? If so, how? Our experts offer background and insight.
Is everything on the up-and-up here?
Rick Wilking/Reuters
Richard Forno, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
With the DNC email leak and Trump calling on Russia to hack Clinton's emails, concern about foreign meddling in the 2016 presidential election process is rising. Is e-voting the next cyber battleground?
By hand: voters use paper and pencil to cast their ballots in the 2016 Australian federal election.
AAP/Paul Miller
There's something about seeing the ballot process take place – the vote, the count – that inspires confidence. That wouldn't be the same with any electronic voting system.
Receiving votes from the internet is the easy part. Proving that you got the right result, while keeping votes private, is an unsolved problem.
AAP/Paul Miller
More than 280,000 votes were cast online at the NSW election, which has been claimed as a new world record. The state's early vote also looks set to hit a new high, mirroring a trend across Australia.
Security experts discovered that the iVote practice server was vulnerable to tampering; after checking that the same weakness affected the real voting server, they alerted the authorities.
Vanessa Teague and Alex Halderman
UPDATED 3PM: The NSW Electoral Commission has now publicly commented on the security flaw we uncovered. But we're concerned that it does not seem to understand the serious implications of this attack.
NSW is expected to see a surge in online voting before the March 28 election – but for peace of mind, old-fashioned paper ballots are still hard to beat.
Paul Miller/AAP
The NSW election will be Australia's biggest test of electronic voting, with up to 250,000 votes set to be cast online or by phone. But many questions remain about the integrity and privacy of those votes.
Digital democracy gives you the tools to create the society you want to live in.
Dominic's pics
True democracy is not just about casting a vote every five years. It means citizens being fully involved in the proposal, development and creation of laws. The Commission on Digital Democracy currently…
If successful, electronic voting poses a serious threat to the great British queue.
Ruth W
The UK may be taking its first, tentative steps towards introducing online voting with the establishment of a Commission on Digital Democracy. As so many of our routine tasks are going digital, the shift…
Director, University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society; Morris Wellman Faculty Development Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan
