WA election: Online voting rolled out to let some cast secret ballot at home
Updated
People with an incapacity or disability making it difficult to vote at ballot boxes will be able to have their say at the March state election via the internet, a first for Western Australia.
The WA Electoral Commission (WAEC) decided to offer the service to ensure everyone had an opportunity to vote in private.
"For some electors, this will be the first time they have been able to vote in secret, which for them and us is an exciting development," WA Electoral Commissioner David Kerslake said.
"Instead of asking someone else to fill out ballot papers for them, these electors will be able to vote via the internet or using a touchtone telephone."
The procedure is based on the iVote system, which has been used at the last two New South Wales state elections.
The move has been welcomed by Inclusion WA, a not-for-profit organisation that supports people with disabilities.
"There's lots of people in society that for a variety of reasons haven't [had] easy access to voting," Inclusion WA CEO Paul Fleay said.
"This gives them an opportunity to vote in the privacy of their own homes and then equally have a chance to cast a secret ballot."
It is the first step taken in WA towards electronic voting.
Head of the University of Western Australia's Centre for Software Practice, David Glance, said he hoped it was the beginning of a full transition to electronic voting.
"I think that this is the way of the future. I hope that it is actually the precursor to more generalised internet voting," Dr Glance said.
"I think that the benefits from that will be immediate results ... fewer discrepancies ... and I think that democracy would be better served in this way."
'Safeguards in place': academic
Dr Glance acknowledged there were "genuine concerns" associated with internet voting.
"If you cast a vote electronically, you want to make sure that vote has been registered and make sure it hasn't been changed," Dr Glance said.
"There's the manipulation of the results, somebody hacking in ... [but] there are safeguards in place that make that much more difficult.
"I think the risks are relatively low in comparison to the benefits that we're going to get from a system like that."
Voters who qualify to cast their vote online at the March poll — including people who are temporarily incapacitated — can register now.
The WAEC said it hoped to extend the system at the next state election to include people living in remote areas and who may be overseas on election day.
Topics: computers-and-technology, internet-technology, elections, government-and-politics, wa, perth-6000
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