Electronic Voting: What is Good and What is Bad

There are a few different voting processes that could be considered "electronic voting". There is the paper based system that uses computers to count the actual ballots; however the original paper ballot is still intact. The electronic voting I would like to talk about is what they call DRE voting or, Direct Recording Electronic voting.

DRE voting is a voting machine that does not use a paper ballot like the paper based electronic voting machines. Instead, people choose their candidates and proposals through an electronic screen, either through buttons or through a more modern approach, touch screen.

There are a few different ways that the ballot information from the machines are counted and viewed. Some electronic voting machines will have removable memory that can then be uploaded into another machine that will aggregate the information. Other electronic voting machines will transfer the information automatically to another machine to aggregate the information. After the close of the voting the information from the central electronic voting machine (the one who aggregates all the ballots) then prints off the numbers and results.

Electronic voting machines that do transfer the ballot information automatically to another centralized machine will do so through phone or cable lines and/or through the internet. In the United States, Electronic voting is used at specific polling centers and cannot be accessed through the internet (through user name or password) like other countries. This information could be sent in batches every hour, sent automatically after each individual ballot is finished or sent after the polling center is closed.

Advantages of Electronic Voting:

One of the advantages of electronic voting is that, in most cases, most ballots will be tabulated into the results. Paper-based voting machines can actually miss ballots because of human error in placing the paper-based ballot in the machine.

Another advantage is obviously the ease of tabulating the results. All counting and ordering is done by a machine, quickly and efficiently, and without human error.

DRE voting machines also have the advantage of never running out of paper ballots at a polling center, since the computer can count an unlimited number of ballots. They also can provide multiple languages to users who may not have English as a first language. This cannot be achieved through a paper-based system.

There are also advantages when dealing with people with disabilities, such as blindness. Electronic voting machines can provide headphones to read off instructions to the blind user. Also other tools can be added to these electronic voting machines to help with other disabilities such as people with limited mobility or the elderly.

Disadvantages of Electronic Voting:

Some disadvantages of electronic voting can include viruses and hacking, as well physical tampering. Hackers are a big problem on the internet today. Although companies and organizations take many precautions when it comes to their electronic products, there always seems to be ways to hack into them. Electronic voting machines are no different than web sites or software; they can be penetrated and altered by a hacker.

Also, besides tampering with the machines electronically, machines could be tampered physically, with foreign software being uploaded into the machine by someone trying to corrupt the election results.

Another disadvantage of electronic voting systems could be the overall costs. Software, machines, installations, proper software protection, and validation of results could be expensive; even more expensive than paper-based machines.

There could also be just a general error in the system, without any outsider tampering. Computer software and systems can have problems that may delay or even halt voting, or may cause errors in calculations.

Summary

As you can see there are many advantages and disadvantages to electronic voting. I believe that we are on our way to using an electronic system, but need to take into consideration these errors and faults that may prove to be trouble in the end. We must realize however that not one system will be error-free, but we can find the best alternative to make sure as many votes as possible will be counted.