Debate after the election

E-voting means more rather than less effort

Comprehensive electronic elections only exist in a few countries

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More and more people are voting by post. This is now causing problems for the municipalities that handle the ballots. The Association of Municipalities is calling for the introduction of electronic voting to ease the burden on electoral authorities. However, the matter is not that simple.

The introduction of e-voting would mean that this would be an additional option to normal voting in the booth and postal voting. There would then be three ways to vote instead of two. Apart from the many unresolved security issues, devices will probably be needed in every municipality for people who do not have a computer or smartphone. This would mean more bureaucracy and more costs.

Postal voting causes more and more effort
Municipalities are already groaning: 1.44 million absentee ballots were issued in the last National Council elections. The mailing alone cost an estimated 11.5 million in postage, plus personnel costs of around 4.5 million. The Association of Municipalities wants to increase the potential for digitalization in elections, for example in the uniform entry of voting data.

Association of Municipalities President Johannes Pressl cites referendums, which already submit 80 percent of declarations of support and signatures via ID Austria, as a model. "This system works and is secure." In Estonia, around 60 percent already vote via e-voting, the rest vote in the polling booth.

More and more people are saving themselves the trip to the polling station on Sunday

(Bild: APA/DIETMAR STIPLOVSEK)

In Austria, postal voting is explicitly defined in the constitution as an exception to voting at the local polling station. This means that e-voting would have to be laid down in the constitution in the same way. It would be added as an additional element and not replace the others entirely. In the end, this means more effort, not less - unless postal voting is replaced by e-voting. However, no one has called for this yet. Legally speaking, it would require a constitutional amendment and thus a two-thirds majority in the National Council. In order to rule out manipulation, "an incredible number of technical issues would have to be resolved", said experts from the Ministry of the Interior. It is therefore unlikely to be introduced in the foreseeable future.

Electronic ÖH election 2009 was overturned by the Supreme Court
In any case, the biggest problem with electronic elections are security issues. This was demonstrated in 2011 when the Constitutional Court annulled the 2009 election to the Austrian Students' Union (ÖH). The Constitutional Court found, among other things, that it was not regulated precisely enough as to how and by what means and under what criteria the electoral commission could check whether the system had functioned correctly.

With the current state of technology, e-voting is difficult or even impossible to carry out. If you want to hold an electronic election, the relevant requirements must be met. "This was not the case," said the then President of the Constitutional Court, Gerhart Holzinger. He conceded that mistakes could happen in any election. With e-voting, however, errors and manipulation could be more difficult to detect than with a paper ballot. However, the electoral regulations must ensure that the conduct of an election is comprehensible to everyone and can also be verified by the electoral authority.