Communications of the ACM
Norway Internet Voting Experiment Fails
Norway has ended a pilot program testing online voting in that country because the meager benefits it provided did not outweigh the potential issues.
Credit: nickfalkner.wordpress.com
Norway's Ministry of Local Government and Modernization recently announced it has ended a pilot program testing online voting in the country after finding the meager benefits did not outweigh the potential issues.
The program had been active for several years and enabled Norwegians to vote online for elections in 2011 and 2013.
One of the major arguments for online voting is that it would increase voter turnout. A survey in the United Kingdom found that more than 55 percent of its residents would be more inclined to vote if they could do so from their own smartphone or tablet. However, the Norwegian pilot program found online voting did not meaningfully increase voter turnout; it also led to several cases of double voting. In the 2013 election, 0.75 percent of voters voted twice, casting one vote online and then voting again using a conventional paper ballot at a polling station.
Efforts are still underway to promote the idea of online voting in both the United States and the United Kingdom, despite a history of opposition to electronic voting in the U.S. In the U.K., voters already register online to vote.
From ZDNet
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