Reality of electronic voting in South Africa

Electronic voting (e-voting) has not been found to increase voter participation in countries where it has been rolled out, with many countries reverting back to the manual system.

However, South Africa has a strong case for digital voting systems.

This is according to Derrick Marco, an international election observer and former Electoral Commission operations manager for the Western Cape.

“Digital voting or e-voting has not shown any increase in voter participation,” Marco told Cape Talk.

“In fact, many of your EU countries, including countries like Germany and so on, have gone back to the manual system.”

However, he argued that this must not be taken out of context as numerous country-specific factors play a role in implementing e-voting.

Marco says that developed countries have functioning municipalities that make voting and counting much more manageable.

Population size also plays a role, with a country like India requiring digital voting because of its nearly 1.5 billion population.

Estonia, with 2 million people, has, on the other hand, been able to experiment with digital voting implementation since the 1990s.

Regarding African countries, Marco says that Kenya returned to manual voting after using a form of e-voting, and Namibia used manual voting in its 2024 elections despite having explored digital systems.

Despite this, Marco says there is definitely a case for e-voting in South Africa.

“Look at the 90 million ballot papers printed for the 2024 elections. Add a growing staff complement because your voting population has grown,” Marco said.

“Then consider that the voter’s roll needs to be updated before elections, and the number of parties that come and go. Then there is a good case to be made for e-voting in South Africa.”

While the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will still need to consult the South African public about e-voting, Marco says it can be implemented in two ways.

“One is to go straight digital, he said, which involves the voter pressing a button and immediately having their vote counted.

“From that point, as a voter, I no longer have control over the information.”

He says there is also a dual system where voters still use a paper ballot to cast a vote, but it is immediately counted and loaded onto a digital system.

The IEC hosted an e-voting conference in Cape Town this week where stakeholders debated the feasibility of such a system.

Surprisingly, a study presented at the conference found that 79% of South Africans, especially those in rural areas, would be open to voting electronically.

“It indicates that the country has moved, and the digital divide is narrowing,” the IEC deputy chief electoral officer, Masego Sheburi, said.

“Interestingly, most of the people who are keen on e-voting are persons in rural areas. You would think that people in rural areas will struggle with technology and that people in urban centres would be more aggressive for e-voting technology.”

In line with the study’s outcomes, elections analyst Michael Atkins argues that South African voters should not be underestimated when it comes to using technology.

“Most people have used an ATM or a phone, with many of us having used smartphones, so it would not be such a strange idea, for example, to have a touch screen voting booth,” he argued.

“I don’t think it would be a challenge that would be too difficult, but obviously, it would be a factor that would be considered in the planning.”

If an e-voting system were implemented in South Africa, Atkins believes it would not be Internet-based voting.

“Although the Independent Electoral Committee (IEC) is doing the research and opening discussions, it is in my understanding that they are not seriously pursuing the idea of Internet-based voting,” he said.

“In terms of the logistics of our elections and the number of voters, there is not a prospect of Internet-based voting taking the burden off of voting stations.”

Sheburi makes a similar point, saying that despite the study’s outcomes, the type of digital systems used for voting must be carefully selected.

“If you roll out website-based voting, it may alienate people and further expand the cases of inequality in society,” he said.

“The IEC will be very careful about the decisions that we make and will draw lessons from jurisdictions that have successfully implemented EV voting and those that have attempted and reversed their decisions.”

Atkins said e-voting using machines at voting stations is far more likely than allowing South Africans to pick their preferred candidates online.