In favour

The common denominator in the seven countries discussed in the previous section, is the fact that they wish to make it easier for their citizens abroad to participate in national elections and referendums. In that respect, external electors are considered to be one of the most suitable target groups for remote e-voting, since there is no comparable voting channel fully available for them that would be as comfortable and as accessible. Postal voting—the channel that is probably most comparable to remote e-voting—does not offer the same benefits, since postal services are sometimes too slow for delivering the ballot paper before voting day and thus some external electors are prevented from voting. Other voting channels, such as voting at an embassy or diplomatic mission, are not as convenient for the voter, since he or she needs to go to a certain place during certain hours. The overall thought behind making it easier for external electors to vote in elections and referendums is, of course, to increase voter participation and thus strengthen democratic legitimacy.

Apart from convenience to external electors, there are other reasons in favour of remote e-voting.

1. In some cases, citizens living or staying abroad are considered to be an ideal test group for remote e-voting, while the real intention is to introduce this new method for electors inside the country as well.

2. In some cases, citizens abroad are well organized—even better organized than interest groups inside a country—and capable of formulating their needs and putting them onto the agenda.

3. Depending on the circumstances and the other voting channels available for external electors, remote e-voting might save costs.

Against

Because by and large only those countries that are considering the introduction of remote e-voting provide information on the subject, there are only a few arguments to be found against the introduction of remote e-voting for external electors. These reasons include:

1. Security concerns. However, there are no special security concerns with specific regard to remote e-voting for external electors. Rather, it is remote e-voting as such that is considered to be not secure. The security concerns include doubts about the Internet as a means of transmission of confidential information, fear of hacker attacks—both by insiders (e.g. software programmers) and by outsiders (e.g. political parties, terrorists or other states)—and anxiety about the possibility of undue influence being exerted on the voter during the voting process (e.g. ‘family voting’).

2. Financial aspects. It may be costly to build the infrastructure for providing remote e-voting only to a limited number of electors. The expensive items can be the building of a digitized, harmonized register of external electors or the maintenance of security of the system.

3. Equal treatment of all electors (external and internal). In Switzerland for instance, the government says that if remote e-voting is introduced it has to be done on a step-by-step basis. It should be introduced for ‘internal’ electors first and only after that for external electors. The reason behind this is that there is no centralized electoral register for external electors. External electors from one canton should not be able to vote electronically while those from another canton do not have this opportunity.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) answers the question ‘Can I vote via the Internet?’ on its website as follows:

• The introduction of internet or computerised voting is not a feasible proposition at this time, as a number of security, technical, financial, access and equity issues have to be solved before it could become a fact of electoral life.
• There is no appropriate software technology for use in full preferential voting system.
• Many voters, especially the elderly and those with poor literacy and numeracy skills may have difficulty with using the internet.
• There is a risk of fraud and errors occurring in software without the safeguard of paper ballots to recount.
• Start up costs would be significant.
• The AEC would need to continue to provide traditional voting facilities for those with no internet access.

However, Australian electors in Australia have been able to use polling place e-voting for elections to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. In 2001 and 2004, e-voting was available at four pre-polling voting centres over a two- to three-week period and at eight polling places on polling day itself.