The suspension of the iVote online voting system in New South Wales will undermine the rights of blind and low vision Australians and poses an “unacceptable” and “significant” step backwards, Australia’s leading low vision not-for-profit says. The NSW electoral commission announced last week it was suspending the iVote system until 2023 after technical glitches during local government elections last year which prevented voters from casting their ballots, throwing elections in Kempsey, Singleton and the City of Shellharbour into doubt. But the suspension has prompted serious concern among blind and low vision groups, who have called for a suitable alternative to be found.
iVote was introduced initially to enable those with blindness or low vision to cast an anonymous, independent and verifiable vote. Without it, they were generally forced to tell family, friends or electoral staff how they wanted to vote, so it could be cast on their behalf. The iVote system is also used for people with a disability who are unable to attend a polling place or those living in remote areas. The Vision Australia lead policy adviser, Bruce Maguire, said the commission had not announced anything to replace the online voting system. Maguire said this represented a “significant step backwards” in voting rights for blind and low vision Australians. “At the moment they’re saying they will provide a human-assisted telephone voting option, which we’re saying is not in any way equivalent to iVote,” he said. “It doesn’t allow you to vote independently, because you have to tell your vote to a third party and it’s certainly not secret. “It’s really not verifiable because you can’t be sure that what you told them is what they’ve written down, even if they say they have two people monitoring things.” In a statement announcing the suspension, the NSW electoral commission said it would work with stakeholder groups for blind and low vision electors to ensure they were able to continue to access the electoral process. “The electoral commission will start work immediately with representatives of the core users of iVote – being electors whose disability or location overseas or in remote areas of NSW makes traditional voting a challenge – to explore other ways to support their participation in the election,” the statement said. The commission did not provide a further response to Vision Australia’s concerns. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Maguire said the NSW government had failed blind and low vision people by not ensuring the system was maintained and fit for purpose. “If iVote is no longer fit for purpose, the NSW government must provide a suitable alternative for the blind and low vision community,” Maguire said. “People who are blind or have low vision have the same voting rights as anyone else, and those rights must be respected and upheld. “It’s simply unacceptable to strip that from our community with no assurance that an equivalent alternative will be put in place for the next election.” The commission had previously said it would need to extensively reconfigure the system before it could be used again. The commission said it was only able to “retain a small team of specialist resources to deliver iVote” due to funding constraints. During a budget estimates hearing last year, the electoral commissioner, John Schmidt, described his frustration at the process for applying for funds, describing it as “Kafkaesque” and a “circle of hell”.