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ELECTRONIC VOTING

May 21, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

One solution to improve the efficiency of polling and the accuracy of tallying and declaring the votes cast in political elections is through the use of electronic voting.
Electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used in all polling stations in India during that country’s general elections. These machines were initially introduced in India on a pilot scale and then eventually rolled out to be used in all elections.
If these EVMs could have been employed in the hundreds of thousands of polling stations across India, how come they cannot be used in Guyana?
These machines have a number of advantages. For one, once balloting is closed, the ballots do not have to be counted. They can be tabulated electronically. Electronic voting also totally eliminates spoilt votes. In the last elections in Guyana, the PPPC lost Region Eight by one vote. The party wanted a recount of this Region. In other Regions, it felt that it may have picked up more votes had a large number of its votes not been classified as spoilt votes. In electronic voting there are no spoilt votes.  As such, one ground of contention is removed.
There is also no need to physically count the votes at the closing of the polls. The machines do this and provide a summary of the total votes cast for each party. The EVMs also safeguards against inaccurate counts and clerical mistakes.  They ensure accurate tabulations. The machines calculate the votes for each party and therefore there can be no fraud in the counting. The EVMs also allow in some cases for electronic transmission of the results.
Eventually these machines are going to graduate to totally eliminate voter fraud. For example, it is only matter of time before fingerprint identification is integrated into the system, thus removing the possibility of persons voting for other persons.
While the cost of EVMs is high, these machines can be reused multiple times and therefore recoup their costs. They also allow for a reduction in the number of polling staff at the polling stations, Polling agents are still required to observe the voting but you do not need more than two persons at the polling station other than the party’s polling agents. This will yield savings in costs.
Of course, there are disadvantages. It does require some amount of technical expertise to be able to employ the many security features in the system.  Some amount of technical knowledge is required of those who will operate and oversee the system and this can throw up some challenges even in a highly literate society like Guyana.
The system is also susceptible to suspicions. There is bound to be the belief that the machines are not tamper proof- and therefore they can be rigged. In the 1992 elections, there was a ridiculous rumour peddled in Guyana that the computers at GECOM were hooked up to the computers at Freedom House, the headquarters of the Peoples Progressive Party. A great many persons, not just idiots but many intelligent individuals, believed this nonsense.
In light of the high level of suspicion that permeates the electoral system in Guyana, the use of EVM’s will not reduce the level of mistrust. Yet, if Guyana is to improve its electoral management, it will eventually have to move towards using electronic voting machines. This decision however comes with the baggage of suspicion that the electronic voting can be compromised.
On way of disabusing this suspicion is by rolling out electronic voting in phases, beginning with the elections of political parties, sporting organizations and social clubs. The Guyana Elections Commission should obtain a few of these machines and offer to put them to use in the elections of these various social entities. Once people see how well they work, the roll out for political elections can then be done in phases. It is worth it.

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