Democracy at the one-click distance: Is electronic voting the best option for Moldova?

Authors:
Ina Vîrtosu, Institute of Legal and Political Research of Academy of Sciences of Moldova
Ion Guceac, Academy of Sciences of Moldova

Abstract:

Electronic voting, known as e-voting, has become increasingly popular in our fast developing technology-driven world. Hence, the Republic of Moldova is a source country of migrants, a significant number of citizens reside abroad. Therefore in most of cases Moldovan citizens have to cast their vote in other countries when Moldova has to hold its elections. Presidential elections from 2016 showed that a poorly organized electing process could lead to violations of constitutional political rights. Hundreds of citizens that travelled a long journey to London, Bologna, Milano and other cities, where polling stations were located, were not able to cast their vote because election officials did not send enough ballot papers. For a country with a numerous Diaspora, e-voting could be a solution for all problems that Moldovans have related to the exercising of voting right. The process is seductively simple, but it is also shockingly vulnerable to different problems - from software failure to malicious hacking - and also requires some special conditions for its implementation. This paper aims to provide an insight into the issues of e-voting, and the debate of pros and cons surrounding it, in order to assess if this solution is the best way to go for Moldova.

References:

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Publication:

Central and Eastern European e|Dem and e|Gov Days 2018

Including a Workshop on Smart Cities organized by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe
Proceedings of the Central and Eastern European E|Dem and E|Gov Days, May 3-4, 2018, Budapest
Facultas, 1. Ed. (14 May 2018), 506 p.
ISBN-10: 9783708917375,
ISBN-13: 978-3708917375,
ASIN: 3708917375506

Editors: Hendrik Hansen, Robert Müller-Török, András Nemeslaki, Alexander Prosser, Dona Scola, Tamás Szádeczky