Voting with paper and pencil: time for an upgrade?

While we are surrounded by advanced AI and self-driving cars, one process remains remarkably old-fashioned: voting. In the Netherlands, we still do this with a paper ballot and a red pencil, in a polling station in our neighborhood. Meanwhile, other countries are already experimenting with smart technologies. In this article, we highlight several digital tools that (potentially) improve the voting process.

AI is changing society, including the voting process

In our digital age, we expect processes to be fast, efficient, and error-free, including the voting process. Whereas we used to have to wait a long time for the final election results, in the Netherlands, this now takes around five days. The preliminary results are often available within 24 hours. This acceleration is thanks to digitization and centralized software. With AI, this development can be taken even further.

For example, AI can be used to automatically recognize and count votes on paper ballots using intelligent image recognition (OCR and ICR). This even works with handwritten numbers. The software reads documents quickly and accurately and then compares them with the manual counts. Double checks, fewer errors, faster insight: AI has the potential to significantly improve vote counting. In Chile, for example, an AI system was successfully used during the elections. The counting process was reduced from months to a few days.

Real-time facial recognition: scary or efficient?

Facial recognition sounds scary to many people. Not without reason; technology that scans your face raises concerns about privacy, abuse, and surveillance. Biometric data can be leaked, for example. Identity fraud using such data can be very problematic. Facial data is unique and permanent—you cannot change it like a password.

Nevertheless, facial recognition can also offer advantages, provided it is used responsibly. It can be an efficient way to verify the identity of voters very quickly. Long queues would then be a thing of the past. Moreover, fewer volunteers would be needed on site. In India, this technology was tested by the government in local elections in Telangana in 2020. There, facial recognition was used as an additional control measure alongside the usual ID checks to prevent voter fraud through identity swapping. However, there was a lot of criticism: there was a lot of uncertainty about whether and how the privacy of voters was guaranteed.

Online voting: we're not there yet

Then there's online voting. What's the status of that? In the Netherlands, digital voting, or voting via the internet, is not possible for formal, national elections. This also applies to provincial elections, municipal elections, water board elections, and European elections. The current Elections Act stipulates that we must vote physically, at a polling station, using a ballot paper.

Encrypted software

This is not the case everywhere in the world. Estonia is a global leader in internet voting. Since 2005, Estonian citizens have been able to cast their votes online in national elections using encrypted software. Citizens are even allowed to vote multiple times during the voting period, with only the last vote counting. The system is popular: in the 2023 parliamentary elections, more than 50% of voters cast their ballots online.

Online voting not only speeds up the process but also makes it much more inclusive, especially for people with disabilities. In Estonia, citizens can vote from home, using their own laptop or voice-activated technology. For people with physical disabilities, this means maximum autonomy, without having to rely on transportation or special assistance at the polling station.

Blockchain technology

Next up: blockchain, a slightly different way of casting your vote online. Voting does not take place via a single central server, but via a distributed network of computers. It is a way of storing data securely and transparently, as votes are recorded in a network without any one party controlling everything.

The Swiss city of Zug conducted a small test with blockchain voting. It allowed 72 residents to vote via their smartphones using a digital ID. A promising experiment, but still small-scale; more extensive research is needed before conclusions can be drawn.

The Netherlands: cautious experimentation

Let's return to the Netherlands for a moment. The voting process here still takes place with paper and pencil, without the use of digital means. However, cautious experimentation with internet voting is underway. The Radboud University research group iHub, in collaboration with the municipalities of Amsterdam and Groningen, tested an online voting system for local citizen participation. The system used the IRMA app, which verifies personal data in a privacy-friendly manner. Although the technology works, researchers warn that online voting still involves too many risks. These include coercion to vote within the family and doubts about whether the vote remains anonymous.

Physical voting at a polling station, therefore, remains the norm in the Netherlands. So, for the time being, we will not be getting rid of the red pencil just yet.

The Future of Voting

In the series “The Future of Voting” we explore how new technology is changing the voting process.

View The Future of Voting