Daily advancements in technology meant that it was only a matter of time until people could vote online. Electronic voting, also known as e-voting, is a type of machine-mediated voting in which electors select candidates using a computer technology (Ottoboni & Stark, 2019). While some may find online casting questionable, this computerized approach is more trustworthy than using vote containers in elections, especially national elections. A modern man should be receptive to the revolutionary technologies and opportunities that electronic voting can deliver to multitudes of people in the United States and throughout the globe (Germann & Serdült, 2017). Although an online voting system has only been accessible to the public for a few years, it has the potential to significantly alter the election process in the future. As a result, this essay deconstructs some of the characteristics of online polling to demonstrate its significance.
Accessibility and Easy to Use
Electronic polling is available via various devices, including handsets, computers, and desktops, simplifying the voting procedure to a single click or touch on a touchscreen. As a result, voting can be monitored from any location (Adekunle, 2020). The days of spending a whole meeting attempting to determine a day when everybody would be in attendance for the election are over. For instance, if some citizens are on holiday, they can quickly enter the software from their beach chair and vote. As a result, this is also incredibly advantageous for a country with a vast population and with whom its people are located around the globe. Additionally, electronic voting alleviates the complexity of locating and renting several polling locations and the cost of a substantial percentage of mail votes (Adekunle, 2020). During voting sessions, all individuals may vote from the convenience of their homes. If a person has a connection to the desktop, smartphone, tablet, and wireless or other Internet connectivity, online voting is simplified.
A ballot can be submitted with the press of a button, which is why this casting mode is so tempting to individuals with impairments; it allows autonomy. Citizens can make their selections whenever they choose, throughout the election period, and from any location, they wish, without requiring help (Adekunle, 2020). As a result, this presupposes that the person in consideration has an internet connection via a gadget they very certainly use daily. Finally, disabled or disadvantaged voters can use specialized software on their equipment to aid them in utilizing the internet (Johnson & Powell, 2020). One such application is the screen reading program, enabling users to comprehend what is displayed precisely (Johnson & Powell, 2020). Due to the generic nature of such technology, it would have no way of knowing if the knowledge displayed was correlated to elections, therefore processing it identically to other webpages material and lowering the danger of harmful conduct.
Minimized Voting Costs
Digital casting has been heralded as a game-changer in races since it can be considered the breakthrough application for eliminating one of the problems limiting democratic turnout: the expense of voting itself. There are several intrinsic expenses, one of which is the cost of voting itself. In other nations, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, these expenditures include incorporating polling into a conventional weekday workweek, which must accommodate employment, children, and other responsibilities (Goodman & Stokes, 2020). As a result of the economic concerns of polling day participation and the difficulties related to postal voting, many have viewed electronic voting as the way forward in political exercises. With innovation, internet casting can address the two cost issues connected with postal polling.
First, digital voting networks can supply participants with data to enable them to vote correctly, hence conserving material printing costs. Thus, this is enforced by notifying voters to examine their vote selections before casting their choice if they bypass an election procedure, permitting them to amend their preferences (Goodman & Stokes, 2020). Second, the internet guides the member through the processes required to validate the ballot, ensuring that the person does not miss a step, as the website’s time concerns are beneficial. As a result, jurisdictions suffer fewer costs for hiring voter assistants to help individuals during the physical voting process (Goodman & Stokes, 2020). Additionally, converting to internet systems can drastically cut a nation’s costs. It eliminates the cost of producing and delivering thousands of votes if the government traditionally uses mail-in ballots. Suppose in-person voting becomes the practice in a country’s electoral system (Goodman & Stokes, 2020). In that case, the shift can decrease the expenditures associated with hiring a polling station and generating all papers required for that day’s election.
Enhanced Participation and Involvement
Due to the increasing convenience of use, there is a greater likelihood that more residents will vote, mainly if they can do so from the comfort of their sofa via their cellphone. Additionally, many digital voting systems options feature social media connectivity, allowing the country to improve engagement further (Petitpas et al., 2021). After voters cast their ballots, a page will appear requesting that they share their results via social networking avenues like Facebook or LinkedIn (Petitpas et al., 2021). The generated item will not indicate who they chose; it will simply suggest that they participated in the voting. Therefore, this may entice other people to sign up as well. E-voting simplifies the voting process by requiring less time and effort on the side of the voter (Petitpas et al., 2021). These constitutional changes aim to reduce both the immediate and subjective expenses of casting and the perceived utility of elections.
Electronic voting is particularly appealing to residents who cannot attend a polling location. They include the disabled and elderly; those who live in distant areas; and residents living overseas, and it eliminates the turnaround time involved with the mail system (Petitpas et al., 2021). Enhanced performance is the advantage of online voting since it can be accessed at any place and any time, including at home, at the workplace, on vacation, or on international trips, and thus enables electors to participate (Petitpas et al., 2021). Furthermore, electronic voting is meant to attract the younger generation, for whom social media and the internet have supplanted traditional channels of interaction (Petitpas et al., 2021). Internet voting is projected to improve turnout by providing a more straightforward voting method.
However, whether and to what extent introducing e-voting will increase turnout depends on the formal macroeconomic parameter settings, such as the election mechanisms accessible at the time e-voting is implemented. When only traditional on-site participation mechanisms, such as casting at the polling station, are in situ, adopting e-voting simplifies the polling act and encourages participation by recruiting new voters (Petitpas et al., 2021). In comparison, when another straightforward voting option, such as simple mail voting, is already present, the incremental benefit of e-voting is negligible. In this situation, e-voting primarily functions as a replacement for other voting forms (Petitpas et al., 2021). That is, it is used mainly by individuals who vote regularly and would have voted in another manner if e-voting had not been offered.
Increased Trust in Elections
Elections are intended to provide citizens a voice while also conferring credibility on political representatives. As a result, the effectiveness of a voting process is contingent upon trust. It is critical for a democratic government that all electoral participants can verify that their ballot was documented and tabulated correctly and that the outcomes accurately represent the citizens’ desire. Therefore, digital voting enhances confidence and trust in the accompanying ways. First, it is not enough for a state to possess modern software; it must also employ it appropriately (Warkentin et al., 2018). E-voting technique effectively boosts voting authenticity by fixing existing issues or streamlining mechanisms, is configurable and voter-centered, utilizes different systems, and is executed by qualified experts (Warkentin et al., 2018). Moreover, digital voting effectively enhances trust by incorporating cutting-edge research and development (R&D) developments to promote fundamental voting tenets such as unrestricted, reasonable, equitable, personal, protected, convenient, and expeditious voting.
Second, online voting is an entirely fully transparent technology; it produces reliable, extensive, and consistent information and outcomes. As a result, verified digital and manual material, such as voter-election printed documentation, protects voters’ constitutional freedoms and increases efficiency among election participants (Warkentin et al., 2018). Third, electronic voting is a compelling vehicle for developing more substantial regulatory standards and industry practices by highlighting critical public issues raised by citizens and professionals (Warkentin et al., 2018). Cyber-security studies and inquiries help legislators, electoral organizations, lobbying groups, and technology suppliers.
One of the primary innovation goals, specifically e-voting, is to provide consistently secure systems that quickly produce provable outcomes. Finally, Shahzad and Crowcroft (2019) insinuate that electronic voting equipment is easily repaired and upgraded. The argument is straightforward: technology improves at a breakneck pace, and stagnant approaches are destined for failure ultimately. To improve voting trustworthiness via e-voting, the systems replace outdated and susceptible structures and restructures the entire election management framework to ensure it is entirely fraud-proof (Shahzad & Crowcroft, 2019). Moreover, the design incorporates voter registration details and data sets into the security architecture and holds stakeholders accountable through numerous audits.
Enhanced Result Transmission and Reduced Invalid Votes
The outcomes distribution and compilation operations involve the communication of election results statistics from voting centers to a centralized casting headquarters and their aggregation to produce total results at the district or federal level. Gathering and computing votes from numerous polling sites across the country are frequently the slowest components of the process when using paper-based systems (Agbesi & Asante, 2017). With digital voting software, computers may deliver results instantaneously and consolidate. Agbesi and Asante (2017), therefore, enumerated that as a result, the initial data can be presented rapidly. On the other hand, due to voters’ inability to understand voting cards or guidelines on labeling them, a lack of education enhances the possibility of illegitimate votes. For instance, in India, where 31% of persons are uneducated, and in Somaliland, where big Iris scanners are required, higher spoilt votes have been recorded (Wang et al., 2017). Many votes in different nations have been invalidated before digitization in politics due to errors such as not casting the mark in the correct location or multiple locations.
In several elections, the proportion of rejected ballots exceeds the victory margin, raising questions on the outcome’s integrity. This issue has been resolved in numerous jurisdictions by introducing user-friendly e-voting devices (Wang et al., 2017). Consequently, electors now need merely to engage a button adjacent to the applicable political logo, which is prominently shown during political races. When voters finish and digitize paper votes somewhat of hitting a computerized button, the scanner can be set to acknowledge only precisely done polls (Wang et al., 2017). Electronic voting software may contain precautions regarding ballot box filling which was once a typical occurrence in remote areas of a nation, where outlaws or political activists take control of election points to load containers with votes for a chosen candidate.
Conclusion
Electronic voting, or e-Voting, is the practice of labeling or casting a ballot during polls using innovative equipment. As a result, a government that implements online voting into its political structure reaps enormous benefits. E-voting eliminates the difficulty of identifying and hiring numerous polling stations and the expense of a significant proportion of mail ballots. Citizens may participate from the comfort of their homes throughout the voting periods. Digital polling is eased when a person has access to a laptop, cellphone, computer, broadband, or other network connectivity.
Furthermore, the internet helps the individual through the operation of validating the vote, guaranteeing that the individual does not skip a procedure, as the platform’s time constraints are advantageous. As a result, governments incur lower expenditures associated with the employment of voter aides to assist voters throughout the existing voting system. Electronic voting provides better effectiveness since it can be accessed from any location and at any time and at home, at employment, on holiday, or foreign journeys, enabling registrants to engage. Finally, in certain polls, the percentage of discarded votes surpasses the winning margin, creating concerns about the legitimacy of the results. Several countries have addressed this problem by implementing user-friendly electronic voting equipment.
References
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