DIGITALIZATION OF THE ELECTION PROCESS: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF IMPLEMENTATION IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article analyzes the prospects for the implementation of the digitalized electoral process in Ukraine, taking into account the existing challenges. Based on theoretical research, it has been proven that the use of the latest e-government technologies contributes to increasing the level of democratization, the emergence of new forms of political participation, involvement in politics and voting of more citizens. The chosen course of the state on the introduction of e-government, which should be considered as the countdown to 2014, was supported and continued by the newly elected President and Parliament in 2019. Therefore, the results of the digitalization process in Ukraine were analyzed based on thematic sociological research on the number of users, their age, place of residence and the intensity of use of the World Wide Web and applications related to public services. According to the author, the digitalization of the electoral process is inextricably linked with the process of implementing e-government and is an integral part of it. In turn, online voting is not limited to the transmission of the voter's vote, but consists of a set of actions that must be digitized - submission of registration documents of candidates, voter register, counting of votes and more. The author concludes that despite the problems of technical protection of personal data of election subjects and unauthorized, hacking interventions in the voting process, the introduction of digitalized election process remains only a matter of time.