In the past fortnight we’ve heard suggestions that the local elections scheduled for 6 May will be delayed, some for the second time since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted. Local authorities tasked with running them are cash-strapped and unsure they can do it safely, and such elections have dismal turnouts anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I argued in The Article <\/em>earlier this week, such thinking devalues democracy<\/a>. Officials like London mayor Sadiq Khan have been holding office without a mandate for months already, and voting is the most fundamental function of any democratic government \u2013 not an optional service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Plenty of people agreed with me in the comments. But an alleged solution that came up several times was online voting. \u201cIt is surely time, especially under the given circumstances, to move to online voting,\u201d said Michael Rieveley. \u201cEstonia has been doing it for years, so why can’t we?\u201d asked Peter Booker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Online voting has obvious appeal even outside of a pandemic. Many people are used to shopping online, working remotely, and using the internet to book holidays. If pollsters can conduct their research online, for some it follows that elections could be done digitally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The greatest beneficiaries of online voting would be those who struggle to attend polling stations. In Britain they can currently use a postal vote or choose a proxy to vote in their stead, but it would be easier for them to click a button on their computer or smartphone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Advocates note that Estonia has used online voting for elections since 2005. The officials running the system say it works well and that 44% of Estonians use i-voting<\/a>. The country has been a pioneer in digitising public services more generally, and claims that 99% of its public services are available online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, computer researchers believe Estonia’s voting system is vulnerable to breach<\/a>. It would be surprising if the Estonians had designed a system that couldn’t be interfered with. The Internet was designed to share information rather than safeguard it, and few systems are genuinely secure by design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n