e-voting underway in local elections

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 28 Apr 2003 at 12:37

Electronic voting is now underway in the technology pilot for the local elections. The 'electronic polls' opened on Friday 25 April and close on election night itself, Thursday 1 May.

Sheffield, Ipswich, Norwich, St Albans and South Somerset are the areas participating in the online voting scheme.

Under the slogan '21st Century Voting', the Web site VoteSheffield.com, for example, enables Sheffield electors to avoid the hassle of travelling to polling booths and to vote remotely instead.

With a Voter Id and Password, and the use of cookies and a secure link, it is now possible to vote electronically. Once you have entered your voting code for one of the various candidates, a Receipt ID is generated by the system to confirm receipt of your vote. This should match a pre-allocated code you received with your password. The Web site warns 'It would be an offence to cast a vote using the identity credentials of another person'.

The voting system has been delivered to the local authorities by Accenture along with BT and Oracle. Note, however, that the level of encryption required to vote online means that not all browsers will be able to support the transaction. And cookies have to be enabled, too.

Alternatively, it is possible to 'e-vote' by SMS text message, or simply by phone.

In Sheffield, the local elections involve 29 wards and 15 of these will be involved in the test, involving approximately 18,000 people. The development builds on a similar pilot run in Sheffield last year - see 2006: year of the e-Election? - which supported Internet, phone, kiosk and postal voting in three wards, Hallam, Manor and Netheredge. The whole scheme is funded by the government's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

You can read more info about the background to electronic voting here.

Along with the online voting, Sheffield has also introduced a smart card scheme. In the words of the council, this is 'part of ongoing effort to make e-Democracy meaningful and real for its citizens'.

As well as identifying people when voting 'manually' at polling stations, it can be used to vote at special public access kiosks.

The wider plan, however, is to put the smart card at the centre of council services. It will be used for libraries and public transport, as well as council-related payments. Sheffield Council also promises special offers and discounts for card holders.