Voting machines

Most democracies actually avoid or have abandoned e-voting because of issues, along with additional privacy concerns

Among the proposals for electoral reforms recently suggested by Prime Minister Imran Khan was introducing e-voting and voting machines. This is one of the ruling party’s more controversial and problematic ideas. While the PM says voting machines would help make the elections free and fair, there are serious and legitimate concerns over both of these points. This is because voting machines, as the name implies, are machines, and as such, can be hacked or tampered with in ways that are almost undetectable.

Most democracies actually avoid or have abandoned e-voting because of such issues, along with additional privacy concerns. Many others only allow them for local or ‘less important’ elections. Developed countries such as Ireland have literally cited cost as a factor in rejecting the machines. The US, one of the few countries where the machines are in widespread use, has seen several issues pop up. In some cases, the ensuing disputes have made international headlines.

Some voting machines do not provide any form of a paper trail, meaning there would be no way to check if ballots were logged correctly and counted. There have been cases during testing of machines improperly logging votes. There have also been cases of machines failing or churning out nonsense numbers, forcing local officials to switch to paper ballots at the last minute. Then there are the additional costs involved. E-voting is expensive due to the purchase, maintenance, and storage costs of machines. A bit of computer literacy is also required for voters to use them.

Also notable is the fact that the machines would ideally be locally maintained. This is for security reasons — a foreign party could rig an election, and we would be none the wiser. But even a local operator could do this. Even if we found honest operators, there would be technical worries. Remember the RTS fiasco from the 2018 election? Now imagine if that was taking place nationwide at every polling station all day. For what it’s worth, the Election Commission of Pakistan has been pointing out many of these issues for years. Unfortunately, the government seems hell-bent on going its own way, against the advice of experts.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2020.

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