E-Voting

This chapter contributes to the debate around e-voting by describing and discussing the experiences of two adopting countries: India and the Philippines. With careful, qualified comparison of the experience, the author overviews the possibility for adoption in Africa. Africa often finds itself at the centre of attention with respect to elections. This regrettably relates to extreme violence, civil disobedience, and fraudulent activities. Will e-voting be the panacea for her problems? This chapter also provides a snapshot of current international e-voting experiences with respect to trailing, piloting, adopting, and even abandoning this practice. A challenge with electronic voting is that the voting machines are susceptible to sometimes undetectable changes by insiders, outsiders, and hackers who may or may not have ulterior motives. Opportunities, on the other hand, include inter alia neutral, faster, more accurate ballot counting. The chapter concludes with a contextual African evaluation of India's and the Philippines's respective e-voting experiences.