The Colombian government plans to implement an electronic voting system for the 2014 elections, reports newspaper Vanguardia.
Government officials made the announcement in collaboration with the Interior Ministry Sunday.
A forum led by Senator Juan Manuel Galan Pachon outlined a number of implementations that would improve Colombia’s electoral system, including electronic voting, a fingerprinting system, and voter registration.
Pachon said that modernizing the electoral system would combat crimes like buying of votes, impersonation, identity theft, and ‘transhumance’ — a method of electoral manipulation where voters move to cities other than their place of residence in order to vote for a particular candidate.
He compared the current system to a “broken telephone” that leaves room for human error and corruption. A difference of up to 10% had been found between pre-count and official vote counts, he said.
One of the most contentious issues is the new voter registration regulation which would require Colombians to give their personal data and address to their city registrar. They will be required to do this six months before elections in order to be able to vote.
Even though officials claim that this information would be protected under the Habeaus Data Act, which makes it inaccessible to law enforcement, some worry that this personal information could fall into the wrong hands.
Other benefits of the new voting system are that is faster and is more accessible for voters who have trouble understanding the current, more complicated system, according to Sanchon.