We are a group of New Zealand-based technologists, practitioners, and enlightened public servants and policy makers who value our democracy. We take our democratic right (and yours!) and duty to vote seriously.
Among us are people who have deep career-spanning understanding of digital technology. They are mavens, with a rich nuanced background. Others of us understand how policy is made and the pressures politicians are under. And we talk to one another with a goal of greater collective understanding.
We champion Democracy as the least worst form of government we have found. Our group feels that protecting and respecting its primary institution, the secret ballot, and the voters' trust in it, is one of our greatest most important challenges and solmn duties.
Many governments around the world, local and national, are concerned with deminishing voter participation. To ensure that elected governments are legitimate, they are casting about for ways to improve that participation, and an attractive component of that effort is "online votings". It has been sold to governments as "increaing the youth vote", lower cost, and securable. Many have even convolved it with promises of "participatory democracy".
Little is said in the public about the likey negative impact such a move might have, particularly a blow to voters' trust in the integrity of the vote. It could, in fact, have precisely the opposite effect from that which government officials are wanting.
Our League is united in cautioning NZ government, both local and central decisively against online voting. We believe that the risks to our democracy far outweigh any possible benefits.
Our primary shared motivation is making New Zealand a smart, empathetic, egalitarian, effective democratic society. We focus on moving incrementally towards that goal and never giving up ground we have already won in the name of expedience.
We're volunteers, part of this at our own cost, on our own time. We're not in this for fame or fortune. We're here because it's the right thing to do. For New Zealand and, crucially, New Zealanders.
If any of us have a pecuniary interest in any of the positions we put forward, we will proactively disclose it.