IEC hears how online voting can cut down time voters take to cast ballot

JOHANNESBURG - The Electoral Commission (IEC) has heard from international experts on how online voting could drastically cut down the time it takes for voters to cast a ballot.

The IEC is on day two of its e-voting seminar in Cape Town, looking at the possibility of introducing electronic voting to South Africa.

Heads of electoral commissions from some countries that have transitioned to electronic voting made presentations to the IEC on Tuesday.

Long snaking lines at polling stations have been the picture of South Africa’s voting process since 1994.

In contrast, the Namibian Electoral Commission said that since it switched from paper-based elections to electronic voting machines, it takes their voters 30 seconds on average to cast their ballots.

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Director of Operations at Namibia's Electoral Commission, Zenia Klazen, said: "On average, a voter took less than 30 seconds to cast their vote and we have realised and observed that even in the rural areas we have not had a lot of challenges with people interacting with the EVM’s (electronic voting machines)."

For Estonia, which uses a hybrid model of paper-based voting and internet voting, it said that on average, it takes a voter about three minutes to cast their ballot online.

Both countries have also expressed technical challenges around their respective electronic voting methods but said the good outweighed the bad.