Paulina Jabłońska
Within an analysis of the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the electoral systems of V4 countries, it is difficult to overlook the issue of alternative voting methods. After all, we primarily associate the pandemic with lockdowns, limitations of freedom of movement or other restrictions on access to the public domain. It has been obvious to consider alternative voting methods with greater weight, especially electronic voting (e-voting), as during the pandemic time there was a need to limit the number of voters at polling stations. It therefore constitutes a worthy question, whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the discussion of e-voting in Poland.
At first, one should point out that e-voting has not been adopted in Poland, although some pilot programmes have been launched. E-voting, including internet voting (i-voting), had been broadly discussed for many years before the pandemic in both the academic and public spheres, though this discussion was held within a specific context. In general terms – not only in Poland – e-voting has been taken into account within discussions of possible state endeavors to increase voter turnout, especially among younger voters. However, the academic community has approached the subject with great caution. Several risk factors have been indicated, while some issues have been raised from the perspective of attempting to guarantee fundamental electoral law principles, such as universality (which would be affected by the lack of universal internet access, especially among older voters) and vote secrecy. Fears from technical problems and hacking attacks have also been expressed, while others have also doubted that e-voting is an effective tool for increasing voter turnout, highlighting experiences from other countries in which the implementation of electronic voting has not translated into increased voter turnout.
Has anything changed since the pandemic? It seems that such a shocking experience could significantly impact our perception of e-voting and discussion about introducing this voting method in Poland. Indeed, at the beginning of the pandemic, when problems with organising the 2020 presidential election arose, some voices proposed introducing i-voting. I-voting appeared as an alternative of traditional and postal voting. It was suggested that the pandemic and its related restrictions offered a good opportunity to test this kind of alternative voting method in the Polish context. However, as we know, this idea has not been implemented. As a consequence of a political agreement (the so-called Kaczyński-Gowin agreement), the presidential elections scheduled for May 2020 did not take place. They were finally held in June and July of 2020 using traditional voting.
More than two years have passed since then. Though the pandemic situation remains uncertain and the next elections approach, I see increased interest in e-voting in neither academic discussion nor public debate. A short review of the available content leads me to conclude that the pre-pandemic discussion rather have been continued. Given this context, the point of view of the Polish State Electoral Commission should be also pointed out. In its informational statement, which takes into account the pandemic experience, the commission recommends for Polish public authorities to consider introducing alternative voting methods on a wider scale. However, it mentions only the need to extend postal voting; it includes no mention of e-voting.
In conclusion, it is somewhat surprising that the pandemic seems to have had an insignificant influence on the discussion of e-voting in Poland. It seems that this experience should have hugely impacted the global debate on e-voting, especially i-voting. Such impact might have been expected to be especially meaningful in Poland due to the controversies associated with its 2020 presidential elections. However, this does not seem to be the case. One have not noticed neither huge interest in e-voting or i-voting nor no changes in the debate on this topic in either the Polish academic or public sphere – at least for now.
August 2022
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The views expressed above belong to the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centre for Social Sciences.