Should People Be Able to Vote online

SHOULD PEOPLE BE ABLE TO VOTE ONLINE

Introduction

According to Hoffman and Cranor (2001) voting online has been a discussion that has been difficult to discuss since it has both good and bad sides. Though with all the bad sides, voting online surely out numbers the usefulness and impact it will have in many areas and especially in this century. However, after all is said and done, countries such as Malaysia and the United States of America have been voting online during their elections, and this has shown how convenient and cheap voting online can be; covering huge masses of people as well. If people should be able to vote online, then there would be a record turnout that would be either positive or negative.

Online voting

Voting online, also called electronic voting, is a system that will allow many to transmit their secret and secure votes over the internet to particular officials. Technology has rapidly grown allowing new tools to make voting online feasible. Additionally, voting online brings about convenience because of the systems and software’s that are well designed. This means that the voters can choose to use their own computers or any other electrical devices with the capability to cast a vote thus using minimal skills and time to finish voting. The electronic devices that are used to cast votes over the internet are also not expensive and anyone, as in this case voters, can use them anywhere anytime. Online voting also reduces the expenses that would have been paid for the administration as well as the location. Because of this technology, papers would be saved making tallying neater than it would have been when using papers; it will also be much quicker. By a simple click to a button, one is able to submit their vote to the system and move on to do other things that are equally constructive.

Coleman (2005) though good, online voting can also be very risky in terms of security. This is because there is no certainty of the voter following the rules; the voter’s opinion because of this can then be biased by the people around him or her such as friends or family. The administration would also have to ensure that the voter is verified to be who they say they are. For instance, if there were some credentials that one would need in order to vote and another person got a hold of those very credentials, what would deny them a chance to vote impersonating the credential’s owner? Hacking would also be a very big problem when it comes to online voting. This is because hackers from everywhere and anywhere can try to crack the electronic voting system for their own gain or benefit (Volkamer et al., 2006). If for an instance they would manage to get in, they would either manipulate or destroy the voter’s votes and thus get access to some information that is very sensitive.