Former election adviser points out the risks of promoting electronic voting in Mexico

Eduardo R. Huchim, election specialist and former adviser to the Federal District Electoral Institute, criticized the position in favor of electronic voting that had been granted on the General Council of the National Electoral Institute (INE), as well as its inclusion in the election reform initiative proposed by the Republican Presidency.

in the past column in newspaper UpdateHuchim points out that advocates of electronic voting tend to avoid the risks under the influence of the electronic equipment supplier.

For specialists, those who defend this technology advertise it as faster and cheaper than traditional sound on paper. However, Huchim considered that they did not take into account the main problem of electronic voting, because it caused a loss of certainty and confidentiality in elections.

Those who promote electronic voting confirm that it has been adopted effectively in many countries, but Huchim points out that they avoid mentioning that in very few cases this practice has been definitively implemented and the cases of countries such as Germany, Finland, Netherlands, Ireland, Kazakhstan , Norway and the United Kingdom, whose proceedings have been canceled or permanently banned.

For example, specialists describe the vulnerability of this system with an exercise conducted in 2018 in the United States, when a competition was held to intervene in the voting system (hackathon) in which of 39 participants, 35 successfully penetrated the security of the system reporting sound.

Finally, specialists question the intention to violate the trust built on elections by promoting the use of this technology. “If we have solved most of the past problems regarding trust in elections, why start the adventures of other countries that have returned?”, concludes the text.


Image (CC BY) Gibran Aquino

Roderick Gilbert

"Entrepreneur. Internet fanatic. Certified zombie scholar. Friendly troublemaker. Bacon expert."

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