ELECTRONIC VOTING — WAYS TO IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ELECTRONIC MECHANISMS OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the research of the concept, forms of electronic voting and approaches to its organization in the countries of Europe, Asia and the USA. The normative regulation of this sphere is shown in European and domestic legislation. The formation of the national e-governance system is shown. It is analyzed that the main purpose of electronical voting technologies is the person’s exercise of his will, as well as the process of counting votes, without mediating interference, which may affect the result (maliciously or under the influence of the human factor).

It is grounded that the electronic voting system has already been introduced in many countries around the world: the USA, Canada, Brazil, India, Belgium, Australia, Estonia, and South Korea. In the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Japan, and China experiments are being carried out on its use. However, it is proved that the most interesting and one of the most successful is the experience of Estonia, the basis of the system of electronic voting which is the use of the Internet, and also a special identification card (ID-card), which certifies the identity of the voter, is considered fair.

It is noted that the introduction of the electronic voting mechanism contains potential risks and disadvantages of use, including: vulnerability of computer systems (viruses, hacking attacks, etc.); distrust of a large part of the population to the technology of electronic voting; the possibility of manipulation and third-party interference in the will of the will; the lack of opportunity to obtain evidence of an offense in the event of suspicion of falsification and, accordingly, to effectively challenge the offense; significant cost of technology at the implementation stage; unavailability of the Internet for a large part of the population; the lack or low level of computer literacy of certain categories of citizens; an increase in the “digital divide” of society. It is proved that the expansion of the sphere of application of various forms of electronic voting, which are already actively implemented in Ukraine, contribute to a more complete involvement of the public in public-public dialogue and the political process, first and foremost, among young people — the most receptive to technological innovations and, at the same time, not the most skeptical about the usual democratic institutes of a public group.