It's time for E-Voting

I am very surprised that in this day and age, people still have to waste a whole day, traveling many miles and kilometers to queue, waste volumes of papers and lots of money, all in an effort to perform a simple task, voting.

Technology has far advanced to the extent that elections and the manner in which they are conducted should be digitized in Ghana and all of Africa. Several activities are being digitized at a fast pace, why not voting? Some countries are even using digital currencies, trying to move away from notes, why not do the same for voting?

Countries like Estonia, the Philippines, the UK and Venezuela among several others have already paved way with this internet voting (iVoting) or electronic voting (e-voting) that I’m writing about. India and Brazil had started the process leading towards e-voting in 1982 and 1986respectively; both using it in their general elections in the year 2002. Whereas some are using polling place electronic voting machines (EVMs), others are practicing internet voting and SMS voting. Should we Africans wait for the millennium to take advantage of technology and do things in a better way?

IPAC, what's wrong with practicing E-VOTING? Why can’t we take the opportunity to explore this better way of voting that will save us huge sum of money, time and lives?

With four easy steps, users of both smart and keypad phones can cast and register their votes in a Presidential, Parliamentary and any other election.

Considering the fact that we vote this way during beauty pageants, renewal of insurances, playing of lotteries and other games, I think it is high time the electoral commission replicates same in conducting elections. As mentioned earlier, some other countries have already paved the way for us to follow.

How easy is e-voting?
Upon dialing a USSD code, opening an app, or logging-on to a website, every voter has four simple steps to follow to make their choice and register their votes.

What are the four (4) simple steps:

1. Enter a valid Voter ID
2. Verification of ID
3. Select Candidate of choice
4. Submit

Even for the presidential and parliamentary elections which take place concurrently every four years in Ghana and across many other African countries, a registered voter can follow these simple steps to vote from anywhere.

What could possibly go wrong with e-voting?

E-voting is a brilliant ingenuity but comes with a few challenges. Good network connectivity is of primary essence to the voter. However, a person who finds difficulty, could use another person’s phone to vote.

What about verification? Voter verification is an important part of our electoral system and voting. How do we ensure that every vote cast is originating from the same identified registered voter, and not anyone impersonating him/her or someone using another person’s ID to vote? The second stage of e-voting is takes care of that with an embedded facial, fingerprint, voice, eye or unique history verifications.

The most challenging aspect of making this historic switch is ensuring that it is technically safe from being hacked. For this reason, countries which have implemented e-voting have invested much to boost their system to safeproof it from external infiltration.

What are the Benefits of E-Voting (SMS Voting and/or Internet Voting)?

Low cost of resources: Huge sums of money goes into procuring papers, boots, printing, paying electoral officers and security officers, and transportation to polling stations. All these costs are eliminated once e-voting replaces the former paper voting.

It is worthwhile noting that no new voters’ register would be required when switching to e-voting. The existing voters’ register could come handy.

Voter’s convenience: With the introduction of e-voting, people could easily vote from any location, without the need to travel to a designated polling station just to vote. It also saves the voter transportation cost and the long hours of traveling and staying in queues to vote. Health-wise, it is the safest thing to do,eliminating crowding and the voter’s risk of contracting communicable diseases.

Real time results is another benefit of e-voting. As and when people vote, the results are automatically collated and summed-up as soon as the voter presses the submit button.

Enhances credibility of results: E-voting eliminates double voting. System configuration would ensure that every registered ID would be permitted to vote only once. Also given that results are collated on real time, stealing and snatching of ballots and ballots boxes, as well as altering of results would all be a thing of the past, ensuring credibility of the results.

E-voting eliminates electoral violence. Fighting, snatching of ballot boxes, and even killing of people at polling station are sure to be completely eliminated with the implementation of e-voting.

Without a doubt, the benefits outweigh the challenges. Considering how far technology has advanced, why should we continue to queue, waste paper, and risk being killed just to vote for someone? I urge all Africans to embrace this idea, invest to pilot and implement e-voting.

Reference: International IDEA, ‘Introducing Electronic Voting: Essential Considerations,’ 2011.

Writers: Rich Akpalu & Emefa Sophia Akornor

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