Time to revamp “outdated voting system”

The voting process would become quicker and more secure if voters could register online.

This would be particularly useful at the large voting stations, says Jóan Petur Hentze, who heads Tórshavn’s election committee.

“We have been using the same manual processes for decades. It’s time we start looking at upgrading our voting system,” he says.

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“I’m not talking about the actual voting, which should be carried out manually. But we should consider allowing voters to register digitally.”

He uses air travel as an analogy:

“All registration is digital and once all that is in place, the passenger can physically board the plane. The same could be done at elections. This would make the whole process much smoother for everyone.”

Security

Hentze does not believe that digital registration poses any significant security concerns.

“I can’t see any difference security-wise in using a physical polling card versus using e.g. a QR code.”

He sees many advantages in updating the voting system:

“Not only would the queues become much sorter; it would also be cheaper as there would be much less work for us. Another advantage is that election participation figures would be updated in real time."

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.