Why don't we vote online or on our mobiles yet? I mean, hello, it's 2016.

Turns out there's a bit more involved than just building a new app.

Computing expert Paul Kwan from the University of New England reckons we already have the goods.

"The technology is there now, but the perspective, particularly with politicians, is that the technology is not safe enough," he said.

The case against online voting

Voting integrity - or concerns your votes could be tampered with - is the main reason voting online isn't a thing in Australia.

Vanessa Teague, an electronic voting expert from the University of Melbourne, says we just don't have a system that can make sure voting online is done safely and anonymously.

With the regular pencil-and-paper voting, candidates can nominate scrutineers to check the vote counting is all above board - sort of like election bouncers. Having scrutineers present from all sides of politics minimizes the chances of corruption or neglect in the process. Vanessa calls it "an evidence trail".

"With online voting, the security issues are huge and building an evidence trail is difficult." Vanessa reckons if something goes wrong we might never even know about it, because of secret ballots, which BTW Australia pioneered in the 1850s.

Putting checks and balances in place for online voting would be relatively easy, but it could compromise the ability to vote anonymously. For example, a voter could email their vote in, but then their electronic information and voting intention would be obvious and traceable.

If you don't care about privacy, it's easy to have an evidence trail, and vice versa. But it's very hard to have both."

She points to online banking as an example. If your bank suspects fraud, they ring you and ask if a suspicious purchase is one you actually made yourself.

Imagine if that happened with voting: "excuse me, Ms Medhora. We've noticed some unusual voting patterns on your account. Did you really vote for the Free Hugs Party*?"

You'd have to divulge your voting habits without really knowing what the person on the other end would do with that information. What's stopping someone from getting hold of that info and saying "don't vote for that party again, vote for the More Ice-cream Party** instead or I'll break your legs".

"With online transactions, we accept that there's a certain amount of fraud attached to that. The question is, what amount of fraud will you tolerate with voting," Vanessa asked. "The internet is fine for everyday interaction, but that's not the same as something so important as voting."

Privacy aside, Vanessa notes that there's a chance other countries could mount a "widespread and deliberate attack" on our voting system, if they've got skin in the game. With elections as tight as this one, even tampering with a few hundred votes would be enough to get one party over the line.

I see internet security as becoming more challenging over time, not less."

Vanessa reckons the integrity of Australia's voting system is more important than the convenience of voting on your phone from bed on polling day.

The case for online voting

But Paul disagrees.

"If we want to do electronic voting, we need to agree that there is a certain amount of risk. But that risk isn't insurmountable," he said.

Australia needs to get its act together and look at ways to get electronic and online voting happening, or else risk falling behind other countries, Paul said.

While countries like Canada, Estonia and India have trialed electronic and online voting, "no single country has rolled out an electronic voting system across the country," he said.

Money could be put towards developing safe online voting procedures, but it's unlikely that will happen in the near future.

"I think that there are other issues that might be a priority for politicians," Paul said.

Electronic voting - that is, voting using a machine in polling station - already exists in Australia. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has been using it since 2001. In the last territory election just over 25% of people voted that way.

But that system is NOT reliant on the internet, and therefore the safety issues are minimized. And it relies on people physically turning up to a polling booth, so the convenience factor is reduced, too. (On the plus side, democracy sausage sizzles.)

And for all those pencil conspiracy theorists who have been contacting Hack, I say one thing: disappearing ink.

Computerphile explains it best in this passionate video:

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*Not a real party. But if it was, I'd vote for them.

** Would lose the lactose-intolerant vote, but in with a strong chance of winning regardless