Both supporters and opponents of e-voting offer arguments justifying which method is better suited for the electoral process. The main arguments are highlighted hereafter.
Benefits
- E-voting can install a process to enable people with disabilities to vote by themselves, easily and in secrecy (e.g. audio ballot papers for visually impaired voters
- E-voting contributes to a faster vote counting and delivery of the final election results (especially with complicated electoral systems)
- It is expected that e-voting leads to more reliable results since human error is excluded
- Complicated ballot papers may be presented more easily
- Reduction of errors
- It is expected, that e-voting enhances prevention of fraud in polling stations and during the transmission and tabulation of results (reduction of human intervention)
- E-voting offers more/easier ways of presenting multilingual ballot papers
- Long term cost effectiveness by reducing poll worker time, postal charges, printing costs
- Remote Internet voting can provide opportunities for improving certain groups access to the election process, such as the visually impaired, those unable to visit polling stations (military personal and citizens living abroad)
- Remote Internet voting encourages more voters to cast their vote remotely and increases the likelihood of higher voter turnout for a mobile electorate
- Remote Internet voting allows voters to cast their vote in an electoral district other than the one where they are registered and facilitates the polling process for citizens formerly voting by mail
- Remote Internet voting can reduce family voting/vote selling compared to postal voting by allowing multiple voting
Risks
- Unauthorised intervention of third parties in the voting process (hacking attacks)
- Risk of (large-scale) manipulation by (small group of) insiders
- More difficult to detect and identify the source of errors and technical malfunctions than with conventional procedures (lack of transparency and lack of understanding of the system by non-experts)
- Possibility that fully digitised system would fail to produce results and lack physical back-up records, making a public recount difficult or impossible
- Requirement of system certification. However, no widely agreed (international) standards for certification available
- Reduced level of control by EMBs; high dependence on vendors and technical expertise
- Need for additional voter education campaigns
- Risk of (loosing) public trust in the election/referendum process
- Increased costs (purchasing and maintaining of e-voting system)
Costs
Costs of e-voting are judged controversially. This holds true for DRE or kiosk voting and any form of Internet voting. Opponents of e-voting argue that the acquisition and maintenance costs of e-voting systems are higher than costs of traditional voting systems. Even more so if e-voting is not offered as the unique voting channel but only as an alternative voting channel. On the other hand, proponents maintain that over time, e-voting reduces overall costs to operate and manage the election or referendum process, especially if printing and postage costs can be saved. A third chain of reasoning is based on the assumption that costs are irrelevant as long as voter turnout can be enhanced and/or accessibility of the voting process for citizens (especially handicapped voters or citizens living abroad) can be improved.
When determining costs of remote Internet e-voting, the following items have to be taken into account (on the basis of the Swiss cost calculations for remote Internet Voting – slightly adapted):
Non-recurring costs
Software:
- Development of the e-voting system (development and testing)
- Procurement costs and installation costs for additional software (security software, data base software)
- License fees (various licenses for software and transmission)
IT-infrastructure:
- Procurement costs and installation costs for central IT-infrastructure for the e-voting system (computer center, server, firewalls, network, costs of constructing the infrastructure for the computer center etc.)
- Procurement costs and installation costs for decentral IT-infrastructure for the e-voting (additional hard- and software, e.g. scanners)
Electoral roll/voters’ list:
- Development and procurement costs for voters’ list date base
- Development interface between voters’ list and e-voting systems
System adjustments:
- Further development of the e-voting system (development and testing of e-voting software)
Certification:
- Costs of certification of the e-voting system by an external body
Annual recurring costs / investment
e-voting systems:
- Operating costs (costs of maintenance and licensing of e-voting software)
- Operating costs of the e-voting IT-infrastructure (costs of maintenance for the computer centre, servers, network etc.)
- External security audits (costs of penetration tests, auditing, accompanying working groups etc.)
Development of e-voting systems:
- Costs for research and development (study contracts, working group meetings etc.)
Specific costs per election / referendum:
- Information for voters (instructions for voters on e-voting)
- Paper and printing costs
- Package and postal charges (additional costs compared to non-electronic elections/referendums)
- Costs for provision of data by voter registers
- Tabulation costs (additional costs compared to non-electronic elections/referendums)
Personnel costs:
- Project management
- External mandates
Public relations:
- Costs of internet publications and printed publications
Amortisation of single investments:
- Hardware (5 years)
- Software (3 years)
- Licenses (after expiration)
- Certification (after expiration)
More information:
Cost information of Swiss e-voting projects
Cost information of Canadian e-voting projects
