Case study: Australian Electoral Commission (AEC)

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) maintains an impartial and independent electoral system for eligible voters. Currently the AEC offer paper-based voting systems, but would like to explore prototypes of online voting platforms. The AEC has concerns surrounding the anonymity, security and integrity of online voting platforms. Democratic will might be compromised if voter identity can be linked to their vote, meaning voters may feel socially pressured or coerced. However, if records are not be kept, then tampering or corruption to the system could slip by undetected.

Prescribed Criteria

Deliver the Australian Electoral Commission Digital Solution within the task requirements:

8-10 A3 pages edit: using QCAA documentation specs is not considered strong criteria

2-4 minute video demonstration of the online voting system

4-6 A4 pages of code

Voting application must securely provide the following base functionality:

New users can register

New or returning users can authenticate

During an election, authenticated users can submit their preferred candidate selection

System can tally votes and determine election winner

User experience must prioritise the following useability requirements:

Safety - voters cannot cast multiple votes in the same election

Effectiveness - cumulative election data and voter privacy cannot be compromised or tampered with, under any circumstances

Utility - the application must be able to cope with large volumes of traffic over short periods, given the nature of an election event

The following technical benchmarks must be met:

Application must ensure quality of service through all major browsers, including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer

Application must be delivered on both desktop and mobile devices capable of running either Windows, Linux distributions, Android or iOS

The solution is required to measurably deliver on these impacts:

Acceptance testing must reflect that voters believed the system to be a preffered method of voting to paper-based solutions

Solution must be considered "fair and just" by a majority of test voters within a significant sample size

Self-Determined Criteria

Development of this task should reflect:

The solution and resulting documentation should illustrate the iterative problem-solving process from the Digital Solutions syllabus, including the phases Explore, Develop, Generate, and Evaluate & Refine edit: using QCAA documentation specs is not considered strong criteria

Solution should reflect authors potential when measured against ISMG standards

User experience must integrate the following useability requirements:

Accessibility - application must be available in multiple languages to cater for all Australian citizens, to ensure fairness and validity of the election event

Effectiveness - source code to perform the identified base functionality must be delivered unobfuscated to the AEC and auditors, to alleviate public mistrust in the technology

Accessibility - technology must use large, visual iconography and be compatible with all assistive devices, such as screen readers. UI must be kept minimal and clutter-free

Safety - during any periods of application down-time, concurrent voters live on the system must not lose their voting preferences. This means as much data as possible should be kept client-side. Voting transactions must be isolated and atomic, so that any interuption or corruption to the service can be easily rolled-back

Learnability - "how to vote" election advice can be made accessible digitally via a tab or side bar, that can pre-fill HTML forms with values to submit for their preferred candidate

Learnability - numbered tool-tips must be used to guide the user through the application on first run

Utility - voters can cast an "absentee" vote prior to the official election window

The following technical benchmarks must be met:

Site must be delivered via HTTPS protocol so that communications between client and server are encrypted

HTML must be validated by W3C to ensure well-formatted markup and better ranking in search engines

The solution is required to measurably deliver on these impacts:

Prototype voting system and resulting iterations must be cost-effective, considering the social, legal and environmental costs of running an election using paper-based alternatives

On reflection, solution must be considered sustainable, or have the potential to reach sustainability, as an alternative online voting system for the AEC, subject to the all other criteria being realised