About Electronic Voting Systems

Q: What is the electronic voting system?

A: Instead of using ballot papers, our electronic voting systems use voting machines similar to ATM banking machines to cast votes.

Q: What is the advantage of using the electronic voting system?

A: There is no need to use papers and that would result to eliminate time consuming manual counting. In addition, electronic voting systems could prevent confusing, misleading and invalid ballots that would speed up the counting of votes. Moreover, the total administrative cost would be cut dramatically using electronic voting systems. At last, electronic voting systems enable to have disability access devises that could help such people to participate elections.

Q: How do I vote electronic voting systems?

A: After voter’s identification process, voters receive a voting card from polling workers. Inserting a voting card into the machine, Voters select the name of candidates to vote on the screen and simply touch the name. When all elections are selected and completed, voters take a voting card from the machine and retune it to polling workers.

Q: How are votes counted?

A: When polling stations are closed, all election data media in voting machines are taken out and carried to the counting center. Those media are read by the tabulation system and summed up with absentee votes and provisional votes, and the election result finally confirmed.

Q: Can voters use own PCs to vote through Internet access?

A: It is almost impossible at this moment to determine if the voter is casting votes by free will. Unless such free will and secrecy of votes are guaranteed, the electronic voting needs to be implemented at the open public spaces.

Electronic Voting Cards

Q: What is the electronic voting card?

A: Voting cards function as a key to operate voting systems where a voter can only vote for once. There is no such data recorded in a card to specify a certain voter to protect secrecy of votes.

Q: How do voters get voting cards?

A: Voters receive a voting card after identification process. When finish voting, voters return the cards to polling workers.

Q: How are voting cards secured?

A: Voting cards with a built-in IC system could prevent it from being copied and fabricated.

Vote

Q: How do you confirm the zero votes have been cast in the voting machine? (Zero Vote)

A: On Election Day the first voter comes to the polling station vilifies the zero votes have been cast in the machine with a polling worker and an observer.

Q: When physically disable people could not cast votes touching on the screen, how do they vote?

A: There are audio guidance and special keyboards available for such voters.

Q: Are paper ballots still available as an option to vote?

A: The answer to this question depends upon the election laws utilizes electronic voting systems. Currently under the election law in Japan, absentee votes and provisional votes are still implemented until the election law gets amended.

Q: How do electronic voting machines store election data?

A: There are two election data medias in a voting machine. One is the original data and the other is the copy data. (Compact flash)

Credibility

Q: If any machine troubles happen to the voting machines, what would happen to the election data?

A: Voting Machines have been tested for durability and should acquire high credibility. However, as a machine nature, there is no absolute guarantee not to have machine trouble. Even if machines are down, voting machines securely preserve the data that is stored in medias.

Q: Is electronic voting data reliable?

A: Electronic data has been used at our daily activities such as money circulations in Banks, and any other electronic commerce.

Q: How can we check that no manipulation on electronic voting data?

A: If electronic voting data lead a doubt of credibility, the audit trail managed by voting logarithm could verify the result.

Q: Are there possibility hackers could alter election data?

A: Voting machines only connect with the power plugs and there is no possibility election data could be manipulated.

Q: If black out happens, what happens?

A: Voting machines have inside batteries. If black out happens, those inside batteries function for the voter who has been voting. And if it takes a while to get recovery, voting machines need to get connected with other power supplies such as power generators or car batteries.

Q: Should election committee members be experts of computer technology?

A: Having little training, everyone could manage and operate elections with our election systems.