ELECTRONIC VOTING: PROSPECTS FOR UKRAINE

Abstract

The article states that the issues of unification and digital transformation of electoral processes have recently become widely discussed in Ukraine. The author notes that the main goal of the ideologues of e-voting is to simplify election procedures, debureaucratize election processes, make it easier for voters to vote, speed up the counting process, minimize the possibility of influencing the counting of votes and establishing voting results. The article examines the main types of procedures and types of electronic voting. The author also emphasizes the importance of complying with Recommendation CM / Rec (2017) 5 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to member states on electronic voting standards (adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 14 June 2017). Examining the history of the introduction of e-voting in the world practice and determining the reasons for abandoning such practices in some countries, the author analyzed and summarized the positive and negative aspects of the introduction of e-voting for certain aspects of the electoral process. The author notes that the system of “electronic elections” is known in world practice, but the question of its application is quite controversial given the distrust of the system itself; the impossibility of ensuring the secrecy of the vote, provided that the voter is identified during, for example, online voting; impossibility of independent observation and verification of data when counting votes. According to the author, the introduction of electronic voting is a matter of separate careful study given the different history of both success and failure of the failed application of the electronic voting system in world practice.