The area of Venuto in Italy
(Venice and surroundings) has just proven the effectiveness, and ease of voting
via what is called “e-voting”, in a referendum upon independence of that region
from the rest of Italy. Some 2.3 million people out of an eligible number of
3.7 million voted, during a
period of 5 days. And 89 % voted in favour of
independence, some 2.1 million of
them
It seems that that
area provides an extra large percentage of the taxes used throughout the rest
of the country, without receiving similar return benefits; and citizens wanted
to return to the days when the Venitian area was a major independent community,
within the world.
But, the interesting
aspect for our purposes was the relative ease of involving the citizenry in an
important issue. Those who did not use the internet, (one could even vote via smart-phones), could vote
in the normal paper vote fashion. Means have now been developed to ensure
propriety and avoidance of anything fraud-like, through the provision of safe ID’s. It seems that some 18 countries now use such
internet processes to permit such voting.
Such a boon this
should be to permit voters to communicate their opinions upon any number of
important issues. Maybe the world will awaken its dormant, democratic lapses,
via this simple, and now proven, effective procedure.
It is not clear yet
to what extent the main government of Italy will acknowledge this disuniting decision. But it must pay
attention to it, to its peril, if it ignores such clear result. Only eleven
percent voted against
independence, while but .29
percent of the votes were deemed improper. An independent commission
supervised the vote to ensure propriety.
This story was
fulsomely reported by many news agencies on Mar. 26. It was suggested that
several other European areas, including a couple of others from Italy, may
pursue similar votes soon.
I share your view with regards to the utility of e-voting as a way of referendums; the problem is "what will happen afterwards", i.e., the validity or acceptance of such e-votings.
ReplyDeleteI take the example of Catalunya in Spain. A referendum limited to a part of Spain is against the Constitution, but citizens may feel that they are damaged in their democracy rights to express their wishes. On that matter, many players are at the end manipulating the catalan citizens, creating even reprisal spirit as a "revenge" against the big nation on those who are sharing normally up to now the feelings to be catalán and at the same time spaniards. That is originating a certain "revolution spirit" and new problems where in the past wasn´t. So, I suppose that the silent majority would not share independency by practical reasons, but if referendum is "ilegal", how can be ensured it is true or not?
E-voting may contribute to escape from this "running in circles" happening up to now... problem would be afterwards what to do with the results, because one of the parties will be then feel very unsatisfyed.