My most recent post on this subject was constructively challenged by someone I respect highly. This person asked:

1. What are ‘high logistical and environmental costs’, in £££ and time?
2. How many people are affected by mobility issues, visual impairments or other things preventing them from going to polling places.
3. Concerning proxy voting, postal voting and statutory aids for people with visual impairments:
   1. How many people are involved?
   2. How many would benefit from the change?
4. How often does it happen that polling places become unavailable?
5. What would success in increasing turnout (due to e-voting) look like?
6. Concerning ‘facilitating reliable and rapid results (including fewer spoilt ballots)’:
   1. What speed up could be expected?
   2. How many spoiled ballots happen?
   3. And under e-voting, how many errors?
   4. What are the risks & consequences of hacking?
7. Concerning ‘reducing the costs of paper ballots’:
   1. What does it cost?
   2. How much would it cost to run e-voting instead?
8. Interesting question is how/whether e-voting helps or hinders a sense of community…

This post attempts some back-of-a-fag-packet answers to questions 1, 2 and 3. The other questions will have to wait for another post.

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