So today was the big day in the UK. The EU referendum. Schools were closed as PE halls are converted into polling stations. The vote to decide whether the UK leaves or remains in the EU had begun.
Having voted earlier in the day I thought I'd visit twitter to gauge the mood of the nation. To my surprise, the talk in the twittersphere was not about whether people voted "in" or "out" but about whether they voted with pens and pencils!
Twitter conspiracy theories (and gags) were abound,
It is odd that in todays age of high tech gadgetry, people make the most important decisions by marking an X on a piece of paper with a pencil.
I voted. It felt like a prehistoric activity. I got a ballot paper in the post months ago. I walked to the local primary school and present the paper. I verbally confirmed my name and address (which I could have read off of the ballot paper if I was unsure). And away to a booth. I marked X on a piece of paper and shoved in a ballot box.
I voted in pencil. It didn't cross my mind to "use a pen." If it did cross my mind to HAVE to vote in pen, it would have opened a bigger can of worms in my mind around how much "trust" there is in the modern voting system.
Voting is all based on trust
- I trust that no-one will doctor my vote
- I trust that no-one will spoil my vote
- I trust that no-one will lose my vote
- I trust that no-one will tamper or lose my ballot box
- I trust that no-one will miscount my vote
- I trust that no-one will miscount everyones vote
- I trust the "volunteers" that stay up all night to count votes
- I trust the "monitors" monitoring the votes
- I trust the vote talliers
- I trust that there has been no postal vote fraud
Trust, trust, trust. trust!
If anything voting should be
trustless.
Voting should be anonymous yet verifiable. It should be decentralised. There should be little room to question the integrity of what is the cornerstone of our "democracy".
I don't have the technological answers however I'm sure some kind of blockchain based electoral voting system would be a marked improvement on what we have now.
IF we truly value our democracy, we should not undermine it with a defunct voting process. #usepens needs to be more than just "todays twitter trend." It needs to be a call of action for tomorrow. A call for a better way of electing those that govern us.