Vote casting in any preferred constituency: A new voting channel

Abstract

In our society a rising number of people change their residence regularly. Insofar, mobility seems to be necessary even on Election Day, which is the reason why an increasing number of eligible voters use the opportunity of postal voting. Thereby, the abidance by the election principles, especially the freedom and secrecy of elections, is automatically transferred into the private sector. This would not be necessary if eligible voters had the possibility to cast their vote in any preferred constituency within the electoral area. Therefore, we investigate in this work if and how vote casting in any constituency can be constitutionally compliant, while maintaining the current electoral system. We also consider the integration of the new German electronic ID card for voter identification and authentication. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.