Should People Be Able To Vote Online - Essay Example

Should People Be Able To Vote Online Should People Be Able To Vote Online Introduction Online voting is a process of casting votes in favor of different political leaders and parties with the assistance of internet. Online voting is one of the most hotly debated topics in the arena of policy making. There are various nations that have adopted online voting while there are those who are either not ready for the change or do not want the change to occur at all. Online voting has been found to benefit in various ways but online voting should not be implemented because it will create a digital divide, it is unsecure and is very costly.

Body One of the main reason due to which promoters of online voting are favoring the system is that they believe that such a voting system will increase the participation of the youth which forms the majority of the population throughout the world and are even the majority in the case of internet users. Online voting may increase the participation of the youth but may result in a digital divide. This means that only those individuals will be able to case votes online that have access to internet while those who do not have access to this resource will be left behind.

Due to this the outcome of the elections will be favoring a few and will become a disadvantage for others. According to Cavanagh, during the period of 2003 a total of only 30% of those individuals who belonged to families earning less than $25k per year had internet access, while more than 90% of those who belonged to families that earned more than $100k had internet access (Cavanagh, 2007, p.65). This means that online voting will benefit only those who belong to higher income earning families.

Another reason due to which people are in favor of internet voting is that it is inexpensive as it does not require the government to print ballot papers and hire individuals for the voting process. Government might be able to save money by implementing online voting but at the same time government expenditure will rise as the government will have to spend money on first developing such a system, they will have to spend money on educating people about the system and helping them understand the system.

Chapman states that educating the public about the electronic voting system will alone cost £9million (Chapman, 2011). This is just the cost of educating people, there are various other monetary costs associated with creating and adopting online voting system. The third reason for supporting online voting system is that it will provide accurate results. it can never be appropriate to suggest that online voting system will provide accurate result because there are huge number of security concerns associated with it.

Computers and the internet is still vulnerable against modern day hackers who have proven to hack the most sophisticated security protocols. Online voting system cannot be less vulnerable against modern day hackers and these hackers can change the results of the votes. Agresta states that during the period of 2010, hackers took control over the online voting system of the region of Columbia and changed all the votes that were casted online (Agresta, 2012).Conclusion Individuals should not be allowed to vote online because hackers can hack the system and alter votes, a lot of money will be needed to be spend in order to create such a system and educate the public about the system and will only benefit those who have access to internet and will result in a digital divide.

ReferencesAgresta, M. (2012). Will the Next Election Be Hacked?. [online] Retrieved from: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390444508504577595280674870186 [Accessed: 25 Mar 2014].Cavanagh, A. (2007). Sociology in the age of the Internet. Maidenhead: Mcgraw Hill/Open University Press.Chapman, J. (2011). A good reason to choose No? Switch to new voting system will cost us all £250m. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357038/New-voting-switch-cost-250m.

html [Accessed: 25 Mar 2014].