Halfway to a digital democracy?

Wednesday 16 March 2016

We might be able to sign up online to vote in the next elections but we still won’t be e-voting in 2018, according to the politicians in charge of States reform.

Deputy Geoff Southern had wanted the States to trial some systems that would allow us to vote online in the next elections but the Privileges and Procedures Committee says two years isn’t long enough to get them going.

Deputy Southern thinks we’re more likely to vote if we’re given more ways to do so and says it will cost about £20,000 to research and trial a secure online voting system.

The Privileges and Procedures Committee has amended a proposal to introduce it as soon as its practical, but they are looking into introducing electronic voting at the polling stations. It’s something that’s been set up in other jurisdictions where machines print out a paper receipt of each electronic vote which is useful so that re-counts can be done and so that they can be compared with a paper count.

The Chief Minister has committed to spending more on e-government and digital initiatives to make the public sector more efficient.

In September 2014 the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee of the House of Commons published a report entitled “Voter engagement in the UK – Political and Constitutional Reform” that called for a package of reforms to electoral arrangements by 2020 to make it easier to vote and increase turnout.

Some boroughs in the UK have introduced online voting in local elections but voters still have to go to the ballot box or post their votes in the general election.