Basically electronic voting has disadvantages in that assuring of secrecy and examining votes becomes difficult, even though they are important elements of elections. In addition there is the problem of confidence in networks and computers and the possibility of manipulation. Still the NEC wants to seek electronic voting because my making things more convenient it can encourage more people to vote. The issue is not ease of voting and vote counting but of increasing participation in democracy. If you look at it that way, the NEC's plans are problematic.
Maybe you would not have to worry too much about reliability if the NEC does things like guarantee secrecy through "smart cards" and if separate paper records are kept for later verification. Having mobile electronic voting stations at the ready where people need to vote would be true to the principle involved. Promoting greater participation in the process needs diverse voting methods aside from electronic voting. There particularly needs to be greater effort in the area of absentee voting such as maintaining the current system while easing the requirements, because you cannot encourage more people to vote without taking the political culture into consideration, including the public's distaste for electronic voting.
Since 2003 Geneva, Switzerland has been using an online voting system for which the secret to success is to be found in the culture there. 95 percent of voters already vote by mail, some areas still vote by a show of hands so secrecy is not considered terribly important, and the country strives towards direct democracy. In other words, the political culture there is entirely different from Korea's. That is why the NEC needs to research diverse methods of promoting voting, including ways to improve the political culture, instead of depending on machines.
The Hankyoreh, 22 April 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
