Internet voting: History of a failed policy

The Representation of the People Act 2000 gave local councils in the UK some freedom to experiment with the way they organise elections, with the approval of the government.

This is how the pilot schemes relating to internet voting (e-voting), and other related changes to the electoral process, unfolded.

May 2000

In local elections, the first experiments focused on extended voting hours and early voting, postal voting and electronic voting and counting.

In three authorities votes were cast and counted electronically using a touch screen voting machine. The machines were located in polling stations, rather than allowing voting via the internet.

February 2002

The government announces details of the pilots to be held in May, proposing "an ever more extensive program of pilots at future local elections to open up the possibility of an e-enabled general election some time after 2006".

May 2002

Elections in Liverpool allowed voting by the internet, SMS and telephone and saw turnout rise to 27.5 per cent from 22.1 per cent in 1998.

In Swindon, internet and phone voting options were made available, and over 4,000 people voted via the council's website and a further 2,000 voted via touchtone telephone. Turnout rose from 25.4 per cent in 1998 to 31.2 per cent. One in four of all 18 to 24-year-olds and almost one in five of those aged 25 to 44 used the internet to vote, compared with three per cent of those aged 60 and over.

Increases of 3.5 per cent in turnout, however, were broadly in line with the national average in 2002.

There were also online voting experiments in Sheffield, Crewe and Nantwich and St Albans where the options were online, SMS, telephone and kiosk voting.

August 2002

A report by the Electoral Commission analysed the effect of that year's electoral pilots. It found that:

"In broad terms, internet voters were more likely to be men than women, to be aged between 35-54, and to be middle class. Landline telephone voters were overwhelmingly from the 45+ age group, working class and/or a homemaker or retired. Polling station voters were marginally more likely to be women than men and overwhelmingly aged 45+. Among the 18-24 age group internet voting achieved its highest penetration. But evidence from the large Swindon pilot suggests that 71% of them still voted at polling stations."

The Electoral Commission also said the introduction of multi-channel voting "proved popular in improving access to voting". It added:

"Technology-based voting has made a good start, but it would be premature to suggest that the government is well on its way to delivering against its commitment to having an 'e-enabled' election some time after 2006. Further piloting is clearly necessary to tease out a number of issues and to establish further the security of these voting mechanisms."

May 2003

Given the requirement for more pilot schemes, the 2003 elections again saw pilots of voting by telephone, text messaging, digital TV and the internet.

A total of 17 schemes offered multi-channel remote electronic voting.

July 2003

Research conducted by the MORI Social Research Institute on behalf of the Electoral Commission on public perceptions of that May's local elections found that 57 per cent of those in the 17 e-voting pilots were positive about the arrangements, feeling they were better than the traditional arrangements. Just three per cent felt the arrangements were worse, and 37 per cent felt it made no difference.

A separate Electoral Commission report on the same pilot schemes noted:

"There is currently no strategic road map indicating how the overall government goal of 'an e-enabled election some time after 2006' will be reached. Although the systems used for the local elections were suitable for their purpose, there is clearly a long way to go. In particular, there does not yet exist any success criteria that would need to be met to enable an e-enabled general election, nor any detailed analysis of the risks involved and the key milestones."

The Electoral Commission urged the government to develop a roadmap for future modernisation.

September 2003

The government responded to July's Electoral Commission report, saying that "thinking on e-voting is not yet sufficiently mature" to make a long term plan "possible or sensible".

The government said the Commission’s call for a plan "betrays an assumption that the timing and nature of this goal is certain, and that the remaining questions relate mainly to implementation. A better model is that of a programme incorporating a series of projects undertaken to create the conditions needed before it would be appropriate to initiate a major IT project."

January 2004

The government says it is still "committed to developing multi-channelled, e-enabled elections, culminating in an e-enabled general election sometime after 2006".

An overhaul of the electoral registration process is announced, aimed at creating "the registration infrastructure that can underpin multi-channelled, e-enabled elections".

The Co-ordinated Online Register of Electors (CORE) project will standardise local electronic electoral registers and make them fully interoperable.

A new set of data standards cover storage of the voter's name, address and date of birth.

January 2006

The government again confirms that it still "committed to the goal of multi-channel elections sometime after 2006".

May 2006

In the latest round of pilot schemes, more electronic counting schemes were tested but there was no further electronic voting.

June 2006

In it's review of the latest pilot schemes the Electoral Commission said media criticism of a set of postal voting pilots in 2004 had reduced the  public's confidence in new systems of voting.

"Given the polling station’s reputation as a 'tried and tested' method it is perhaps not surprising that some elements of the public are increasingly sceptical of new methods of voting."

May 2007

Twelve local authorities ran pilot schemes at the local elections in May 2007. Pilots in Rushmore, Sheffield, Shrewsbury and Atcham, South Bucks and Swindon saw the re-commencement of internet and telephone voting.

July 2007

As Gordon Brown replaces Tony Blair as prime minister, his Governance of Britain green paper is non-commital on the issue.

"The government has extended the use of postal voting with appropriate safeguards and continues to pilot a range of measures to make voting more convenient. As part of the electoral modernisation programme the government has piloted advance voting at the weekend. However, under current legislation advance voting can only be in addition to the normal polling day. In the longer term, the government is investigating the potential benefits of remote electronic voting (using the internet and telephone systems), taking advantage of developing communications technologies to provide increased flexibility and choice in the way people vote."

August 2007

In its evaluation of the May 2007 schemes, the Electoral Commission said there should be no more pilots of electronic voting without a system of individual voter registration.

And the government was again urged to publish "a strategy for modernising the electoral process" including changes to improve security and details of the role of e-voting.

It also called for a central process to test and approve e-voting software, with an emphasis on security and transparency.

"We cannot support any further e-voting pilots in the absence of a framework incorporating these recommendations. The electoral modernisation framework should be accompanied by an e-voting blueprint which should describe the envisaged future situation, covering legislative, process and technology aspects. The blueprint should define the current best practice that has been identified through piloting and other electoral modernisation projects."

The Electoral Commission said "once the vision, strategy and initial blueprint have been developed, they should be published and open to public consultation".

November 2007

In its response to the August recommendations, the government again rejected the Electoral Commission's calls.

"The government does not agree that the value of these pilots has been reduced by the absence of a published strategy...

"Piloting is an incremental and cautious process of establishing what works and what does not, and we do not agree with the Commission that no further e-voting pilots should be undertaken until these elements are finalised."

And the government also rejected the introduction of individual registration.

But the government did offer to help "develop any programme documentation to support implementation of a modernisation strategy" and to "work with the Commission and other stakeholders on public consultation".

April 2008

The government issues a direction requiring that any electoral registration data held on electronic systems is formatted in compliance with the CORE standards by December 1, 2009.

June 2008

The government launches its Election Day consultation on the whether there should be weekend voting.

It says:

"One of the government’s strategic aims is that people should be able to exercise their right to vote with ease and without unnecessary barriers. Its objective is to ensure voting processes are accessible, convenient and easy to use without compromising security...

"The government welcomes views on whether remote electronic voting either on or in advance of polling day would be acceptable alternatives for those for whom weekend voting would present difficulties for religious or other reasons."

July 2008

In its 'one year on' progress report on the Governance of Britain green paper the government failed to mention electronic voting.

October 2008

The government announces that the cost of the CORE project so far is £2.78m.

Asked about budgets for internet voting, a minister responds:

"Detailed budgets for future years have not yet been specifically allocated. Further work on remote electronic voting will be funded as necessary from existing budgets agreed for Electoral Modernisation, subject to ministerial and HM Treasury approval. The government are currently taking stock of the previous work on remote e-voting, including the experience gained in earlier pilots, and the responses to the consultation on election day, to inform the way forward."

June 2009

The government finalises its "high level statement of requirements" for the CORE project.

July 2009

The Political Parties and Elections Act reaches the statute book. It implements a phased implementation of individual electoral registration (which the government previously rejected) on a voluntary basis from 2010-15 and compulsorily from 2015 once positively endorsed by the Electoral Commission and Parliament.

The government announces it now needs to "reconsider the timetable for the commencement of CORE" to take account of the switch to individual registration, with the result that the project is effectively put on hold.

March 2010

The government finally publishes its response to the June 2008 Election Day consultation.

Some 62 per cent of respondents either supported greater access to remote electronic voting, or at least further investigation of e-voting to determine whether issues of transparency, security and cost-effectiveness could be dealt with.

Of 184 respondents who provided specific views on e-voting, 44 per cent were clearly in favour and a further 22 per cent were "more cautious but supportive". "The latter group had concerns about the security of electronic voting methods, but favoured further investigation to determine whether electronic voting could be made secure," said the analysis of the responses.

Of the 63 respondents opposed to greater e-voting, most cited fraud/security and confidentiality as their concerns.

The Ministry of Defence also backed e-voting as a way of ensuring that military personnel on overseas deployment are able to take part in elections. But the Electoral Commission maintained that e-voting should only take place within the context of a wider electoral modernisation strategy.

In it's response to the generally positive consultations responses, the government said:

"The responses on remote voting reflected a continuing support for postal voting and a cautious but supportive view of further investigation into e-voting. Fears of fraud were evident in responses to these areas and that is something that the government takes very seriously – both in relation to existing postal voting provisions and if there is to be further examination of the viability of e-voting.

"The results from the consultation suggest there is continued popular support for remote voting – whether by postal means as now, or potential electronic means in the future. But it is clear from the responses that people wish to be reassured that such methods are secure, transparent and cost-effective. This is an area that needs to be kept under review...

"The government is currently considering various issues in relation to the future of the electoral process, and the information and views gathered through this consultation will feed into that consideration."

April 2010

The Ministry of Justice responds to a freedom of information request by this blog.

It says that there is "no current or planned expenditure on remote electronic voting at this time", and that "there are no plans currently to pilot remote electronic voting".

It adds:

"There has not been further development on a strategy to be published for remote electronic voting and there are no proposals to develop a specific strategy at this time.  A number of policy submissions to Ministers, which included draft planning on possible ways forward on remote electronic voting, were developed following the Government’s November 2007 response to the Electoral Commission.  However, these have not been developed further..."

July 2011

The government announces it is scrapping the CORE scheme.

Other posts in this trilogy:

We were promised internet voting...

Full text of the internet voting freedom of information request and response

Credit: Research for this post was helped by an excellent House of Commons Library paper on electoral pilot schemes.