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28 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS October/November 2016
Amber Garden Centre
hosts Cambridge
Chamber of Commerce
Robert and
Jen Clancy,
Supreme Overall
Winners at the
Waipa Networks
Business Awards,
showed visitors
around Amber
Garden Centre.
Online voting not
as simple as it
sounds
As this edition of the
Waikato Business
News goes to press,
Andrew King is the Hamilton
City Council Mayor-elect,
winning by a slim margin of
nine votes over rival Paula
Southgate. A formal recount of
votes, of which there are more
than 33,000, has been requested
by Ms Southgate.
These votes represent about
a 33 percent voter turnout,
which is well down on previous
elections. In 2010 and 2013,
about 38 percent of enrolled
Hamilton voters cast a vote.
It appears that exercising
one’s democratic right in local
body politics isn’t as compelling
as it used to be.
Currently all local elections
are held by postal vote, with
voting papers sent to all voters
who are enrolled, about
a month before voting starts.
Interestingly, postal ballots
were introduced in an effort
to increase voter turnout from
the ballot box. However due to
the reducing turnout it begs the
question: has it failed? Perhaps
postal voting is past its used
by date.
The Otago Daily Times
scathingly noted that “across
the country, voting papers sit
on kitchen tables collecting
coffee stains and getting covered
by power, telephone and
credit card bills before being
discovered after the election
date and turfed unceremoniously
into the rubbish bin.”
Dr Jacky Zvulun, who studied
voter turnout and electoral
participation in New Zealand
for his doctorate, suggested a
variety of influences behind the
drop-off: busier 21st Century
lives, a lack of motivation
through the print media, a voter
base disconnected to the issues
of the day, and even a public
tiring of postal voting as a child
tires of a new toy.
Responding to a series of
requests, in September 2013
the Government established
a working party to consider
the feasibility of online voting
in local elections. The Online
Voting Working Party’s membership
included representatives
from across government,
local authorities, and information
technology experts.
During 2015, the
Government released a set of
requirements for a possible trial
of online voting. The requirements
were a guide for councils
to decide if they want to trial
online voting at the 2016 local
authority elections. Eight councils
requested to take part, and
were invited to demonstrate
they could meet requirements
for an online voting trial.
However, on April 19,
2016, the Associate Minister
of Local Government, Hon
Louise Upston, announced the
Government’s decision not to
enable a trial of online voting
in the 2016 local authority
elections, due to security
issues. At the time, Ms Upston
said “given real concerns about
security and vote integrity, it is
too early for a trial.”
Dave Lane is a Christchurchbased
software developer, and a
firm believer that online voting
cannot be made secure enough
to protect democracy. Mr
Lane had involvement in the
Department of Internal Affairs
working group on online voting,
and subsequently published
his opinion online.
Mr Lane wrote that he “was
pleased with most of the recommendations
they offered”,
however, he noted that only
a few of the people involved
were experienced technologists,
“[I] got the impression
that most of the others held an
amazing faith in technologists:
that there was no problem they
couldn’t solve.”
According to Mr Lane, “all
internet-accessible software
has remotely exploitable security
vulnerabilities. That we’re
not aware of an exploit to an
online voting system offers no
certainty that it is uncompromised.”
Perhaps a smart hacker will
probe the system during a trial,
find an exploit, and save it until
a high-stakes election, and then
use it subtly, just enough to
alter the result to suit the highest
bidder?
Mr Lane doesn’t believe
that online voting is worth the
risk.
“One of the best things
about paper ballots is that just
about anyone in society can
scrutinise the election. Online
voting shifts scrutineering into
TECH TALK
> BY DAVID HALLETT
David Hallett is a director of Hamilton software specialist Company-X,
design house E9 and chief nerd at Waikato Need a Nerd.
the realm of highly specialised
IT consultants,” he wrote.
“Rather than online voting, our
focus should be on a mixture
of new and proven methods for
improving voter engagement
and participation. Most of those
do not rely on technology.”
IT Professionals New
Zealand chief executive Paul
Matthews, served on the government’s
Online Voting
Working Group that laid the
groundwork for the online voting
pilot.
Mr Matthews favoured a
pilot for local body elections,
where it was relatively easy
to make a case for online voting
being as secure or more
secure than postal voting. He
was, however, more cautious
about online voting’s potential
to replace a physical ballot box
at a general election.
Bruce Schneier, one of
the world’s most respected
online security experts, characterised
online voting this
way: “Building a secure internet-based
voting system is a
very hard problem, harder than
all the other computer security
problems we’ve attempted and
failed at. I believe that the risks
to democracy are too great to
attempt it.”
The local government sector
has been invited to consider
whether it wishes to work
towards a trial in future local
elections.