Pellegrini: We'll Probably Have E-Voting, Let MPs Test It

Bratislava, November 20 (TASR) – E-voting is an interesting idea that might boost voter turnout and influence political parties and their electioneering, said Deputy Prime Minister for Investments and Informatisation Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) at the international ITAPA 2016 conference that took place in Bratislava earlier this week.

Pellegrini thinks that Slovakia will probably introduce this kind of voting. However, he stressed the need to take it gradually and slowly, as these are big changes requiring trust.

“E-voting also depends on people’s trust in this form of voting. When you go to vote, you must prove your identity. And we’ll tell you that your vote is anonymous and that we are unable to find out how you voted,” said Pellegrini, who could imagine anonymous e-voting being tested as a pilot project in some small town during local elections. “It would test people’s reactions to it,” he said.

However, Pellegrini thinks that MPs should be the first to test this. “I propose introducing the new technology of e-voting in Parliament to be tested by MPs. When they say that they trust it, that they are confident that no one can misuse these data or find out how they voted, then let’s gradually go ahead with it,” he stated.

Pellegrini thinks that if people could vote in an electronic way, election results would be completely different from today. The structure of voters would change as well. E-voting might also increase voter turnout, as people would be able to vote in comfort from their living rooms and wouldn’t have to go out in bad weather. It might also make vote people who don’t usually go to polling stations, he added.