IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

If you are interested to know how the voting in Kerala is progressing, check out the Kerala Chief Electoral Officer’s website. And if you want very detailed Constituency wise information, then click here. The status is updated every half an hour.

This distributed collection of the information has led some to claim that this system can overcome issues of over-centralisation.

Election Commission (EC) officials, while brainstorming the next steps to overcome geographical barriers while to cast votes, on Monday explored the potential of using blockchain technology to enable remote voting.

Blockchain is a system in which the database of recordings (a ‘chain’) appears on multiple computers at the same time even as it is updated with any new digital information (‘a block’). This distributed collection of the information has led some to claim that this system can overcome issues of over-centralisation.

After two years of collaboration in multiple areas such as technology, innovation and cyber security, Estonia is now keen to help Telangana in understating the nitty-gritty of conducting e-voting.

“The Telangana government is keen to know about our e-voting system and the technology it uses,” Katrin Kivi, Ambassador of Estonia to India, said after her meeting with IT and industries minister KT Rama Rao here on Tuesday.

The idea of further digitising India’s electoral infrastructure is problematic and could hinder free and fair polls The Election Commission of India has for a while now been toying with the idea of further digitising the electoral infrastructure of the country. In furtherance of this, the Election Commission had, last month, held an online conference in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (“TNeGA”) and IIT Madras, through which they explored the possibility of using blockchain technology for the purpose of enabling remote elections. While this exploration is still only in the nascent stages, there are several concerns that must be considered at the offset with utmost caution.

Online voting will have considerable increase in voter participation, especially among the urban class. Gujarat’s State Election Commission (SEC) has developed an online voting system with a process transformation from the ballot paper to EVM to online voting as one of the alternatives implemented in recently-held Gandhinagar local body elections. The precentage of voting increased considerably, he said.

The State Government of Telangana might advance a blockchain e-voting platform for state & national-level use. The Southern Indian state of Telangana may momentarily develop & test a blockchain-based electronic voting system to simplify remote voting. Speaking at a webinar steered by the Election Commission of India & Tamil Nadu E-Governance Agency, the Principal Secretary of Information Technology Jayesh Ranjan recommended that the state may primarily experiment with blockchain e-voting on a small scale & well along broaden the enactment.

Election Commission of India (Members), Ministry of Electronics & IT, India’s citizen engagement platform MyGov & blockchain industry bests were also a part of the webinar. The members of the webinar conversed the probable use of blockchain technology in arranging an e-voting platform for Indian states, stated Deccan Chronicle(a local news outlet).

“The EVMs currently used in elections are vulnerable and tamperable. It is possible to bring a particular political party into power by tampering the machines. Hence the need for the Election Commission to use ballot papers till the EVMs are made fool-proof. Our intention, however, is not for having ballot system in the country,’’ they said.

And Dataquest magazine, in its cover story on this aspect in its upcoming issue, feels it is the growing realisation of the power of IT that prompted the two main political parties - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress - to give significant importance to it in their manifestoes.

In its endeavour to conduct free and fair elections for the ensuing parliament elections in the state, the Election Commission (EC) is for the first time using GPS-enabled mobile handsets to monitor and track the most sensitive polling stations in the state. “We are conducting this experiment on a pilot basis and based on its success it will be extended across the country,” said M N Vidyashankar, chief electoral officer.

“For the first time in India people are using the internet extensively for queries related to the elections. With elections in Pune due on Thursday, April 23, we are seeing a surge in election-related search queries. Majority of people were looking for Pune voters’ list as indicated by Wednesday’s Hot Trends on Google,” a company spokesperson told Sakal Times.

The Election Commission (EC) is for the first time using GPS-enabled mobile handsets to monitor and track the most sensitive polling stations in the state.

“We are conducting this experiment on a pilot basis and based on its success it will be extended across the country,” said M N Vidyashankar, the Chief Electoral Officer.

Elections Canada, in an Aug. 17 report on the country's general election held on May 2, says Canadians increasingly expect to conduct business electronically, "including when they engage in the electrical process."

In his report for 2008 published yesterday, Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley revealed the e-voting machines cost the State €54.4 million up to the time it was decided “significant additional costs” associated with continuing the project could not be supported.

The smouldering issue that was e-voting turned into an open flame on Tuesday, forcing the government to bow, ever so slightly, to concerns brought forward by Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Greens. Sparking the most recent discourse on the matter on Tuesday night was a joint motion from all three major opposition parties that called on the government to immediately defer plans for the use of e-voting in the European and local elections this summer.

According to the website IrishElection.com, its traffic has tripled since Saturday evening, with a large number of visitors looking for information on the latest Bertie Ahern payment story.