UNIVERSITY of New England (UNE) PhD student Phillip Zada has launched a public awareness campaign to assess the possibility of an online voting system for Australian elections.
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His campaign is called Mobile Voting, and is all about increasing awareness of mobile internet e-Voting and also discovering what really counts to everyday Australians when it comes to elections.
Mr Zada pointed out that Australia pioneered and introduced the current secret ballot system in 1855.
“So why are we so behind in keeping up with the rest of the world?” he said.
“We’re introducing Mobile Voting as an alternative method of voting. We’re not looking at replacing the polling station, but rather to complement them.”
He said the latest attempt at online voting being trialled was NSW iVote, but it was challenged by the abundant use of smartphones and other mobile technologies, with Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing 6 million wireless broadband connections in June 2014.
Mr Zada has approached the Australian Electoral Commission with his concept.
“They basically said to me that this was a great idea because it was effectively their holy grail,” he said.
The Electoral Commission of Queensland reported a record number of pre-poll votes at their recent election, with more than 200,000 Queenslanders voting early. In the 2013 federal election, 2.5 million Australians voted before the polls opened, an increase of one million on the 2010 numbers.
Early voting is the fastest-growing Australian electoral trend. Mr Zada’s idea may be an excellent way to cut down on the postal vote and speed up the tally process.
“With any computing system you have the ability to count them almost instantaneously,” Mr Zada said.
“Essentially a person will be provided with an ID number which will be used to log into the system, and once logged in they can cast their vote.”
Mr Zada said as a failsafe against corruption, polls would be opened for about 10 days, and voters could cast their ballot as many times as they liked. Only their final vote would count.
If voters were unsatisfied or unsure, they could still go down to their polling place and vote the old fashioned way, with a pencil and ballot paper, which for some may well be the preferred option in any case.