So far, E-voting or electronic voting is becoming more common. As the world’s technology becomes more advanced, things become far easier.
One of these things that could become far easier would be for voting. So far, there has been convenience in regards to electronic voting. But the question is: Will electronic voting catch on via a global scale? The answer is not really definite. There is no definite answer to explain that.
One must admit that electronic voting is far easier than your typical pen and paper ballot.
Electronic votes could get counted and sorted far faster than your regular pen and paper ballots. It would probably become inevitable that electronic voting will catch up globally. However, it will take a good amount of time before the entire world will end up using electronic voting.
So far electronic voting has been implemented greatly in 2006 and 2008. In 2006, there were the United States
Congressional and Gubernatorial elections.
In 2008, there were the US
Presidential elections. It is inevitable that electronic voting will be commonplace in the United States. However, it will not immediately go global. It will take some time for electronic voting to catch on in a global level.
However, there are problems with electronic voting. One such problem would be the voting machines themselves. They can break down during elections. During the 2008 Presidential Elections, there were reports of voting machines breaking down. That is one of the flaws of electronic voting. When electronic voting machines break down, it could delay elections. Because of this, paper ballots cannot be completely replaced.
This is one error that needs to be rectified before electronic voting machines can catch on globally. If this error is not rectified, it would really screw up elections across the world.
There are other problems with electronic voting as well.
Electronic voting machines use operating systems. Operating systems are simply programs. However, programs can be manipulated and altered. In that respect, electronic voting machines can get hacked into. When you vote for one candidate, the vote somehow goes to the other candidate.
It makes me think of one of the episodes “Heroes'” first season. There was a scene in which Micah used his special ability of technopathy to manipulate the votes to give Nathan Petrelli a landslide victory. It does reflect on the problem of voting machines potentially getting hacked.
The next problem would be the businesses that own the voting machines. One has to ask: Can you trust those companies completely? One has to ask: Are the companies on someone’s payroll?
Companies could secretly get paid to manipulate the operating system before the machines are carried out to the polling places.
The other problems do not like with the voting machines themselves. There are still plenty of underdeveloped countries. There are also plenty of countries with volatile security situations.
In these respects, it would be unfeasible to let them use electronic voting machines. Plus, the voting machines are costly. When you factor in the pros and cons, electronic machines will probably catch on globally. But, I would give it at least three to five years. In other parts of the world, it could be longer.
