Enhancing Democracy: The Quest for Reliable e-Voting Systems

1. What do we want from e-Voting? Stuart Anderson School of Informatics e-voting

2. Properties like … • Accuracy: Do we choose individual criteria or more socialised criteria? • Confidentiality: we all know the current system isn’t – how hard should it be to discover how an individual (or group) voted? • Availability: given US experience it seems like “rationing” of timeslots could be a real issue. • From a dependability perspective the scope of the system we consider is critical and getting requirements right at that level: • We want e-voting to provide part of the mechanism to implement democracy. • Democracy: "[T]he democratic method is that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote." Schumpeter (1942) e-voting

3. Democracy is in crisis … (perhaps) • The Power Enquiry, published today: • http://www.powerinquiry.org/ • How can democracy survive when we feel politicians don’t listen? • How can politics be revived when fewer and fewer of us support political parties? • How can voting be encouraged if millions see elections as a charade? • Elections Minister Harriet Harman will introduce measures to combat voting fraud ahead of local elections next May. • ballot papers with security marks and barcodes to enable quick security checks. • In 2004 the electoral commissioner said postal voting was "wide open to fraud". • Six Labour councillors in Birmingham stepped down after Sir Richard Mawrey found evidence of postal ballot abuse that he said would disgrace a "banana republic". e-voting

4. Social hazards of e-voting • Schumpeter again: … by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote. • It needs to be a struggle, so e-voting shouldn’t be too easy. • Emphasis is often on issues like: • Large scale fraud of ballot papers • Coercion at the point of voting • Rationing access to voting: registration, supply of machines, bandwidth etc. • Maybe a bigger hazard is making it easy enough for unengaged people to vote. e-voting

5. The case of Sweden • Traditionally high level of voter participation pre 1998, around 85%, 1998 – 77% and dropping. • Ny Demokrati, or New Democracy (abbreviated Nyd), was a Swedish right-wing political party represented in the Riksdag between 1991 and 1994. • Campaigned for election to the national parliament on an agenda of populism, xenophobia, racism and neoliberal economic policy. • Opinion polls showed the party getting more than 10 % support. • On the election day, it received 6 % of the national vote. • Posed a serious problem in a PR environment. • Many in Sweden felt it presaged growing youth disillusionment with democracy. • Swedes can vote very easily – long voting period, voting at the post office, … e-voting

6. Summary • Too many politicians see easing the voting process as a way of “fixing” democracy. • E-voting is seen as an essential tool • Many potentially ignored properties of e-voting system may be essential if we are to maintain some kind of stability in the competitive struggle for votes. e-voting