INSPIRE

Elections in the Age of Globalization

How our hyper-connected world is changing the ways we vote

With the technological advances of the past few decades, the rate at which we can connect with people and places across the globe–both physically, with ever-faster transportation systems, and digitally–is rapidly increasing. This has resulted in both a growing population of international migrants living outside their home country, as well as heightened global tourism.

While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has certainly stunted both our ability and desire to travel internationally (and even within our own countries), it has also seen a staggering increase in remote tele-working that is likely to remain a part of our workplace environment for years to come.

When thinking of elections, these factors highlight two important messages:

1. First, the population of voters who are living overseas or remotely, as well as the number of voters who may be travelling internationally during an election, will be steadily growing for years to come.
2. Second, with each passing year, these voters will have a greater and greater ability and expectation to connect with and participate in their electoral processes using technology.

While we have already spoken about the various options for remote and overseas voter participation, many of these processes still rely on paper-based voting methods, which can be slow and arduous. Furthermore, during the pandemic, voting methods that require citizens to travel to polling stations or embassies to cast ballots are both difficult and risky. Online voting, however, stands out as a remote voting option that capitalizes on the secure technology that we already have at our disposal. So, what does online voting look like in the context of our globalized world?

The Benefits

Increased Accessibility and Participation

An online voting channel can help increase the participation of overseas and remote voters by simplifying access to voting materials and information. A 2018 survey on overseas voters in the United States, for example, found that while 10% of eligible voters requested a ballot to vote remotely, less than half of those voters actually participated in the 2018 election. The survey notes that a primary reason for this discrepancy is the time it takes for voting materials to travel between an overseas voter and their local election office. With an online voting channel in place, voters can access their ballots and related election information directly from their own internet-connected devices whenever they want, eliminating the need to send materials via post.

The impact of digitizing the ballot delivery and casting processes has a clear effect on overseas voter participation. In the same survey, in fact, it was found that overseas voters who received their ballots electronically were over three-times more likely to vote, and that voters who had the option to return their ballot electronically were more likely to do so if they lived in countries with significant obstacles to remote voting. While electronic ballot delivery and return are not technically online voting channels, these data highlight the promise of introducing technology into our voting processes.

To learn more about the differences between online voting, internet voting, and electronic voting, check out this article.

Recent ventures into online voting have also proven successful in helping to increase participation from overseas and remote voters. A study by Anthony Fowler focusing on West Virginia, the first U.S. state to implement a mobile app-based voting solution for overseas voters, found that mobile voting could increase electoral participation by up to 5 percentage points, and that almost half of voters who used the mobile voting app would not have voted without it.

Similarly, Micha Germann noted that overseas voter turnout in Switzerland can be increased by up to 6.4 percentage points with the implementation of online voting, resulting in a 21% increase in overall overseas participation. These studies suggest that allowing overseas and remote voters to cast ballots from their own personal devices can have a significant impact on overall election turnout and participation.

Increased Verifiability and Transparency

During the 2020 U.S. general election campaign, a number of baseless claims were made about the potential for fraud in postal voting methods. Fortunately, there is no evidence that postal voting is any less secure than most other voting methods.

However, it is true that with postal voting and other paper-based remote voting methods, it is increasingly difficult for a voter to verify that their ballot was received and cast correctly. When voting in person, a voter marks their ballot, places it in an envelope, and casts it in the ballot box. Withhile postal voting, though, a voter loses sight of their ballot before it is placed in the ballot box to be counted. In other remote voting methods, such as proxy voting, it’s impossible to know for certain whether a proxy has cast another voter’s ballot correctly.

This lack of verifiability can easily be addressed with online voting technology. In an election with online voting, a voter casts their ballot from their own personal device. Through one of a handful of methods, the voter can then verify that the ballot sent from their device had not been manipulated in anyway during transmission and contains the choices they originally selected. After the election is over, the voter can also verify that their ballot was correctly stored on the voting server and in line to be counted using an anonymized ballot ID code.

Find out more about verifiability in an online voting election through our Security Table of Online voting, available in our resource center.

This added verifiability is a direct result of the advanced encryption technology currently at our disposal, and to avoid utilizing it would be a step backward. In an increasingly globalized world, citizen trust in their country’s elections is as important as ever, and offering such verifiability measures can help ensure voters that their voice is being heard, and can protect elections from misinformation and disinformation.

The Challenges

Security and Trust

Despite presenting data on the potential for increased participation thanks to online voting, Anthony Fowler’s study on mobile voting mentioned earlier also highlights the important realization that the general public has much more skepticism of online voting channels than of other voting methods. Fowler found that “online voting is the least popular voting technology and this is especially true among older people, lower-income people, and those without a college degree”. Interestingly, he also identified that telling respondents that an online voting channel is backed by blockchain technology further decreased their willingness to use it.

These findings reflect the urgency for online voting technology to be safeguarded with the most up-to-date security protocols. These measures include end-to-end encryption, the use of digital encryption keys and signatures, and ballot mixing processes. While it is certainly possible to provide a secure online voting channel for any government election, it requires a qualified provider with the experience and technology to back it up.

To learn more about the security measures required for an online voting solution, see our previous article on the topic.

As our globalized world continues to grow in technological potential, our ability to participate in elections from anywhere and on any device will become increasingly more important. With a secure online voting channel in place, we could see higher overseas and remote voter participation than ever before, and increased verifiability and trust in our electoral processes.

This article was written by Jake Mahr, Marketing and Communications at Scytl.