How Mobile Voting Apps Are Opening Up New Possibilities

Voting is an essential part of any democratic setup and helps in taking decisions based on consensus of the electorates. It is widespread and applied in many spheres of life ranging from student council polls, corporate meetings and of course choosing local governments and representatives. For centuries across the world ballot based voting system has been prevalent. While the system has stood the test of time allowing free and fair elections in most cases, in the 21st century world it is increasingly being seen as outdated. The process involves huge mobilization of resources, takes lots of time and is expensive. Mobile voting has emerged as a welcome alternative and is the future of elections.

As the name suggest it allows electorates to poll their votes or register their opinions using their mobile phones. At the center of this system is a mobile voting app that allows the electorate to choose between the candidates or the options that they are voting for. Since the entire process happens on an electronic medium the process doesn’t call for the kind of resource mobilization as we see in ballot paper based elections. Mobile voting apps also have high security features that allow a person to poll once thus preventing electoral malpractices which are often reported in case of ballot paper polls. Use of a mobile voting app also increases participation in elections and makes the entire process more democratic. Let us take a look at some of the applications of mobile voting app and how they would define future elections -

Federal & Local Government Elections

Governance is directly related to the participation of the electorates on the voting days. It is especially true for local government elections where a small electorate chooses representatives to take care of their basic needs in life. Mobile voting apps have been used in some local government elections and they can show encouraging signs. Not only has it helped improve participation but also helped in reducing some of the ills associated with traditional ballot paper based election. While we are yet to see major democracies make use of mobile apps for federal elections most of them are already toying with the same idea. It is believed that by the end of the next decade many of the leading democracies in the world would implement mobile voting as a means to choose their governments. This will allow smoother election process and also save time and resources when it comes to counting and declaration of results.

Student Council Elections

Student council elections present the most interesting case of using mobile voting app. The millennial population has been leading the way when it comes to growth of mobile devices. They are more apt at using mobile technology compared to the older generation and hence we are increasingly seeing the use of mobile voting apps in student council polls.

Corporate Voting

Voting is common in corporate organizations where shareholders vote on everything from the election of Board of Directors to those involving major changes in the plans and policies for the organizations. If you have seen this voting process from up close you would be aware of the challenges involved. If counting of postal ballots isn’t tricky enough there is the challenge weighting the votes of different shareholders and also managing proxy votes. Mobile voting apps can help businesses overcome these challenges by the use of advanced algorithms. They do away with the need for postal ballots as every shareholder can cast vote irrespective of their location. Advanced algorithm can be used to weigh the votes of different shareholders based upon their stake in the company. The results of the polling can be announced within minutes of the scheduled close of polls.

There are dozens of mobile poling apps available in the market and if you wish to adapt this revolutionary technology you need to exercise caution while choosing one. It is important to choose apps that are part of a larger ecosystem to make the voting process fair and democratic. But the bottomline is you will have to adopt mobile voting apps in the future and it is only a matter of time before we bid adieu to ballot paper based elections.

Summary – In this article we discuss how mobile voting apps can be used in different scenarios and how they are opening up new possibilities in the business