Digital Privacy

Electoral Commission: “e-voting not a mature technology”

Many thanks to Glyn for watching, and transcribing the most interesting bits of, the Scottish Affairs Committee public evidence session in the House of Commons earlier this week. The Open Rights Group were particularly heartened by these words from Peter Wardle, Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission:

“Ron Gould sets his face firmly against [e-voting] for the time being and we would agree with that. We think e-voting is not a mature technology yet and does not command sufficient confidence to be deployed.”

This statement sits in stark contrast to the views expressed by the Government on Monday, when they ignored the fundamental failings observed in recent e-voting trials, and the analysis of computer security experts, to instead support “the continued investigation into the benefits of electronic voting including remote electronic voting”.

The public evidence session was called by the Committee to examine how voters’ interests can be protected, following the publication of the Gould Review into the Scottish elections in May.