European Parliament allows unsafe eVoting by e-mail

Patrick Breyer, MEP for the Pirate Party,
comments on the email voting procedure adopted by the Bureau of the European Parliament:

"The bureau of the European Parliament is
considering to allow Members of Parliament to vote in a written
procedure because of the Corona virus crisis.

The proposed procedure on the table at present is that MEPs would fill
and sign a voting list, scan it and send it via e-mail to the
administration.

Such a manipulation-prone procedure risks undermining public trust in
the integrity of Parliament votes that can have serious consequences.

The procedure comes with a risk of manipulation by hackers. Usually MEPs
can send e-mails using several devices, and their staff can access their
mailbox, too. Also it is easy to come by a MEP's signature and scan it.

This procedure also comes with the risk that personally elected and
highly paid MEPs could knowingly allow others to vote on their behalf.

Viable alternatives could be
a) postal voting as used in public elections (every Member participating
in a vote remotely shall not only send their vote, but also a signed
declaration confirming that they have voted personally, and that both
shall be sent by post to the European Parliament)
b) presence voting in EP offices in Member States
c) something like "Video Ident" used in Germany where the MEP would face
identify in front of a webcam in a live video stream and would then show
his voting sheets to the camera."