Keeping the secrecy aspect in mass e-voting

Area of Science:

• Digitalization
• Information Systems
• Societal Transformation

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly accelerated societal digitalization, shifting many activities online.
• While restrictions ease, virtual interactions remain convenient and effective for many, driving continued interest in online solutions.
• This shift presents opportunities for virtualizing processes like large-scale online voting and polling.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential and challenges of implementing online voting systems for mass participation.
• To address the ineffectiveness of traditional solutions for one-time decision-making events.
• To identify key issues in conducting secure, accessible, and credible e-voting for diverse user groups.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of digitalization trends post-pandemic.
• Evaluation of existing online communication and voting systems.
• Identification of challenges in user authentication and accessibility for mass e-voting.

Main Results:

• Online voting offers convenience but faces significant hurdles for non-computer-experienced users.
• Ensuring voter authentication for secret ballots without compromising privacy is a critical challenge.
• Accessibility and credibility are major concerns for large-scale, one-time e-voting events.

Conclusions:

• Virtualization, including online voting, is a lasting trend driven by pandemic-induced digitalization.
• Developing user-friendly, secure, and accessible mass e-voting systems requires addressing authentication and usability challenges.
• Further research is needed to create effective and credible online balloting solutions for diverse populations.