- 14/01/2021
- Category: Commentaries
The Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic forces humans to adapt to new-normal life patterns by adjusting to avoid transmission, including political contestation. The 2020 Pilkada this time includes a major event that will involve 224 regencies, and for the city level, it will take place in 37 cities, also 9 provinces. Thus, it can be concluded that the regional elections this time involved many people, which is undoubtedly bad news in the prevention of the COVID-19 spreads.
The holding of the 2020 regional elections during the COVID-19 pandemic is a dilemma for policymakers. Because if it is carried out normally, it will almost certainly result in a higher transmission rate. At least three policy alternatives can be selected; first, delaying the election until normal conditions return; second, continue to run elections on the condition that it uses strict health protocols; lastly, holding electronic voting (e-voting) using the internet method that anyone can choose from home to minimize the COVID-19 spreads.
Although we know that the Indonesian People’s Representative Council (DPR) has decided that the Pilkada would continue to be held on December 9, 2020, with strict health protocols, this paper will look at another possibility of implementing the Pilkada 2020 through online voting. The question to be answered in this paper is whether the COVID-19 pandemic increases the encouragement for E-voting? What is the security risk of E-voting, especially when using the internet voting method? This paper aims to look at the encouragement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the implementation of online voting and will explain the security risks.
E-Voting: Health and Economic Reasons
E-voting first appeared in the United States in 1889 by Jacob H. Myers with a machine named Myers Automatic Boots. The big reason for making this technology is to prevent votes’ ballooning, speed up the counting process, and reduce invalid votes [1]. E-voting is also defined as implementing computers or computerized voting equipment to cast votes in an election [2]. E-voting in its development is divided into two, in which one is using the internet, and the other is not. E-voting using the internet is also subdivided into three [3]:
| The level of control of infrastructure by the EMB | Internet | Another electronic machine |
| High | Internet poll site voting | Voting machine |
| Medium | Kios voting | A special computer placed in a public space without supervision |
| Low | Internet voting | Sms text voting, telephone voting, interacsion voting |
In recent months, the dynamics that have occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic made the choice of using E-voting with a remote method or internet voting a sensible choice. E-voting using the internet system will allow every voter to choose his choice even though he is at home with the smartphone used. There are at least two things that encourage the use of E-voting in the Pilkada administration. First, reduce direct human contact. Choosing a political choice through each house using the internet is one way to minimize physical contact between humans. Compared to conventional direct voting under normal circumstances or using health protocols, e-voting is much safer due to the absence of humans contact and greater mobility from one place to another.
Second, saving on election costs. The pandemic has also brought the country to an economic situation that cannot be good. This is due to the increased absorption of the health sector budget, which is also accompanied by decreasing state revenue. Thus, state administrators need to think harder about the use of large budgets. It is believed that e-voting will cut the budget compared to conventional methods [4] [5], because it will cut the cost of printing ballots which absorbs the largest budget. However, this assumption needs to be examined further because according to Luke Wawrzeni the cost of preparing, maintaining, and securing e-voting may be greater than conventional methods [6].
Security and Cyber Crime
E-voting cannot be separated from the security threat of cybercrime. Cybercrime is an inseparable part of digitization which is rife in all fields. Regarding the security of E-voting, the author provides two critical notes, first, voting via the internet increases the risk of cybercrime. E-voting will expand the opportunities for attackers to engage in destructive disruptions and attacks on systems. The tampering aims to deactivate the system, bar voters from voting, and undermine the election’s voter trust. Even though there is an assumption that people’s daily lives are currently utilizing digital technology, whether in the banking sector or other activities, it does not mean that E-voting is safe from attacks. Those facts are also weak because digital crime is reported globally occur every 39 seconds [7].
Second, election hacks may go undetected. Anonymity on the ballot paper, which is according to the election principle, also creates a problem by not being able to verify every incoming vote, thus allowing hacking to be carried out undetected. Ballots can only be verified in quantity, without being able to verify whether every vote received is the original vote of the voter.
The COVID-19 pandemic brings us to a new-normal life that needs to leave many adjustments in various fields, including political contestation. The COVID-19 pandemic has also pushed for E-voting with health considerations. Although in some matters regarding security, it still needs to be studied further regarding readiness and feasibility. Hopefully, the COVID-19 Pandemic will force us to adapt to conditions and maintain the common sense of human behavior.
1. Jones, Douglas W,. (2006) “Technologies as Political Reformers: Lessons From The Early History of Voting Machines.”. The Society for the History of Technology Annual Meeting, Las vegas. [22 October 2020]
2. Cetinkaya, O., & Cetinkaya, D. (2007). Verification and validation issues in electronic voting. The Electronic Journal of E-Government, 5(2), 117–126. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.90.155&rep=rep1 &type=pdf [Accessed: 22 October 2020]
3. Kersting, N., & Baldersheim, H. (2004). Electronic Voting and Democracy. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523531 [Accessed: 23 October 2020]
4. Riera, A., & Brown, P. (2003). Bringing Confidene to Electronic Voting. Electronic Journal of E-Government, 1(1), 43–50. Retrieved from http://www.ejeg.com/volume-1/volume1-issue-1/issue1-art5-abstract.html [Accessed: 23 October 2020]
5. Sanjay, K., & Ekta, W. (2011). Analysis of Electronic Voting System in Various Countries. International Journal of Computer Science Engineering, 3(5), 1825–1830. Retrieved from http://www.enggjournals.com/ijcse/issue.html?issue=20110305 [Accessed: 23 October 2020]
6. Wawrzeniak, Luke. (2020). 8 Cybersecuirity Reasons Why Online Voting May Never Happen. https://www.cylumena.com/insights/8-cybersecurity-reasons-online-voting-never-happen/ [Accessed: 23 October 2020]
7. ibid
