Vexed Bermoothes

Parliamentary Registrar Randy Scott has revealed he is working towards introducing telephone voting to Bermuda. Such systems have been piloted in recent years in the US and Canada.

He says that telephone voters could be given a personalized number that they can enter into a touch-tone phone to identify themselves.

Given the massive challenges caused by electronic voting systems in recent years, any change to the tried and tested systems of paper balloting must be subjected to public scrutiny and input from independent experts.

• To ensure that the registered voter is the person who actually exercises the vote, free from coercion.
• To ensure that a voter may verify their ballot.
• To ensure that the tallying system cannot be compromised.
• To ensure the system is anonymous (for example, a system that provides voters a personalized number could track an individual’s vote, which is a no-no).

In the US at least, these systems have been used as an option for disabled voters, not for the main populace. Typically, the system only accepts phone calls from a limited number of predefined phone lines – those at polling places where voters are checked in by traditional means – and denies access to any unknown phone numbers.

I suggest that these technologies are not ready for prime time, and Bermuda is not ready for them. Indeed, after some trials earlier this year, the UK has put a halt to both online and phone voting.