Digital technology is playing a major part in the election campaign, but the method of voting has yet to catch up
We are currently experiencing the UK’s first truly digital election, with the cut and thrust of the campaigns played out and shaped using new media tools. But will it live up to the hype? Will these new electioneering tools help to decide the outcome and has the UK really embraced the full potential for using technology to support our democratic processes?
In the US, President Barack Obama’s team demonstrated the potential power of new media by using the internet to both organise his campaign and push his messages. MyBO (My Barack Obama) was set up as a site supporters could use to communicate at internet speeds, set up rallies and raise money. His speeches were on YouTube, he used his own blog to fight a smear campaign, he had over 45,000 followers on Twitter and more than 1.5 million friends on MySpace and Facebook. Much of this was done using pocket mobile devices.
Campaigning has become simpler and faster using these tools, but it comes with new dangers. This was evident from Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s failed attempt on YouTube to quell the expenses scandal. Also, witness the way that blogger Guido Fawkes was able to bring down Brown’s former press adviser, Damian McBride, for his role in a smear campaign against leading Conservatives. Fawkes beat the traditional media to a scoop and was able to develop it faster than broadcasters and traditional newspapers.
Then there’s the reminder from the Labour candidate in Moray, Stuart MacLennan, that making offensive remarks about rivals and groups of voters on Twitter can get you sacked quicker than if you used other media.
Contrast this new digital political world with the rather arcane process of voting. On May 6, I will enter a plywood booth and cast my vote using a blunt pencil in much the same way as my grandfather did. We will then wait late into the night or perhaps until the next day for the votes to be counted and the results declared.
The process of voting in elections, the most fundamental component of our democracy, has not changed much in the past 100 years and has failed miserably to keep pace with social and technological change.
Many people now work a considerable distance from where they live, or travel during the week, and therefore find voting difficult. In a recent survey, more than three-quarters of the electorate (77%) said that they would vote on the internet if they could. Millions of people voluntarily and regularly cast electronic votes in election-style contests such as the X Factor. Yet the turnout at elections is falling and fewer younger people are voting. In 2001, less than half of women aged 18 to 24 voted.
When Labour came into power in 1997, it had ambitious plans to use e-government to enhance local democracy, including modernising voting and encouraging greater turnout at elections. This included giving citizens greater choice of where, when and how they could vote, as well as making the counting of votes faster, more accurate and cheaper. There were a series of successful pilots in 2002/03 and an expectation that by 2008, and certainly by 2010, elections would become ‘e-enabled’, offering the opportunity to vote electronically.
There are legal, technical, security and social issues associated with implementing electronic voting and counting but none of these is insurmountable. Isn’t it time that we modernised our electoral processes to match better the ways that we live and work?
I hope that by the next general election I can cast my vote electronically from a place of my choosing – and that the results can be declared soon after the polls close, using much more efficient and cost- effective processes.
John Thornton is an independent adviser and writer on business transformation, financial management and innovation, and executive director of e-ssential Resources
