India specifically has been at the forefront of the idea to adopt the system to eradicate the traditional system of elections known as E-voting. Although electronic voting machines have been in use from 1999, the transition to a completely online or distance E-voting system opens opportunities and threats.

On the positive side E-voting would help the Non Resident Indians NRIs, the migrant workers and the senior citizens to vote since they are reluctant to vote through physically casting their votes. Besides, the option of casting votes from any location is convenient in the sense that it would cut down the time and challenges of organizing the polls in a very populous country such as this. Besides, it might prove to be efficient which reduces expenses on construction of physical infrastructure, the actual paper ballots and security measures at these booths.

The laying down of an online voting process is therefore not devoid of significant hurdles albeit starting with an empty plate. Indeed, one of the major impediments of such process in India is the digital divide as a large part of the population is deprived of Internet connection or adequate digital literacy. It may also cause disempowerment of already largely excluded sections of the society. Another threat involves cybersecurity for the organization’s database of customer information. The electronic systems in use for online voting face vulnerabilities such as hacking, malware attacks, and data breaching that derail the elections. The other issue of concern is the level of security and accuracy used to check fraud and impersonation by the fake voters.

The second focal area is trust and transparency. A voter or the political parties may even doubt the sanity of the online system if their checks and balances, or the verification measures are not well put in place. E-voting would also need major legal amendments regarding India’s electoral laws.

In conclusion, optimistically, the new system has the potential to provide more people’s involvement and effectiveness on this regard, but contemporary complete substitution of the existing traditional system is not possible. In my opinion a better approach could be a combined model of the remote E-voting model in conjunction with in-person voting.