Off-topic: for anyone who lives in Estonia, what is their eID system like?
(For those unaware, Estonia is one of a few countries that has a government issued electronic ID for all citizens.)
(For those unaware, Estonia is one of a few countries that has a government issued electronic ID for all citizens.)
In addition to enabling me to use practically every government service from my couch (and signing legally binding contracts!), the eID system has expanded to become a single sign-on method for many more things. For example, if I would want to change my ISP or mobile carrier, I'm able to log into the new provider's site without any prior registration and have an account with my identity already verified. Even random e-shops will provide this as a login option, and then upon checkout I can use the very same authentication method to confirm the transaction with my bank.
Also, with the advent of Smart-ID (https://www.smart-id.com), I don't even need to pull out my card reader for any of this.
The only government interaction that has required me to be physically present in an office was when the residence permit + ID card were issued to me in the first place.
(For reference, I moved to Estonia from the US in the beginning of 2020)
The long answer: eID was originally through an ID card, and you'd have a USB chip reader you'd plug into your computer and a browser plugin and digital signature software (open source, I believe.) You could use this to authenticate on government, bank, etc websites, and sign documents, very easily: you just remembered a PIN code.
These days many people use Mobile ID which has the same signature functionality on your SIM card, and you sign by entering a PIN on your phone. This is very convenient but I do worry about security a lot more. In the past, there have been security issues, such as flaws in the signatures, and once this caused a large number of ID cards to be reissued. It's not without problems but all problems so far seem to be caught. I don't wholly trust it and I am waiting for the situation where a document is "signed" and the owner of the ID denies signing it.
Almost everything is accessible online, and you do not need to visit offices for the vast majority of government and often other business/bank interaction. I think there are only three things you cannot do online: get married, buy property, and I think deal with deaths. Everything else you can. The famous example is starting a company, which takes about fifteen minutes and even has a customisable template for company documents (in English!) for you, you just pick the options on the website, sign it digitally through the website, establish a holding bank account if necessary (through the website - bit of an echo here!) and done.
Most data about you is digital - your tax, medical etc. For background, I'm someone this scares. I see huge value behind an attack here. I also worry about access by the government or others. But in practice, it seems to work well. Data is stored in different enclaves: the tax department can't see medical data, for example, and access is logged. There are cyber-attacks, most commonly from Russia, but the Estonian IT team is top-notch. If this same system were in Australia I'd have no confidence, because Australia outsources everything and the government cannot run good IT systems. But Estonia does it well.
It is assumed that whoever is using the id card to sign in somewhere or sign something is the owner of the card. Since.. the pin is also required, stealing someone's card doesn't give the thief any benefit.
Why do you think our current system is scarier than the alternative that exists in most other countries? Where every ministry has their own random databases, with data that is probably outdated.
Also, the cyber attacks by russia are always DDOS attacks, they can't achieve anything else.
And for what? So that somebody that is too lazy or too disengaged to fill out a paper form or spend 10 minutes at a voting both can have a say in the countries direction?
Why do you believe none of this can be proofed or kept secure?
Not everywhere has to be technologically backwards.
I can easily go to someone's place, make sure he votes for my candidate and give him 10$. A lot of people with low interest in politics would sell their vote, I suppose.
Polling booths are still safer than all other options (mail voting, electronic voting, etc...)
2. the vote seller can be paid only after the end of the elections, given s/he didn't voted on paper (it it all possible to authenticate wuthout eID on the voting station).
Is it always like this? I could also go at someone's place one minute before the voting closes.
Voting at the voting booth is still more secure.
I live in a country with only voting at the voting booth and I am perfectly happy with it!
In addition to this, the fact that you are not aware of voting fraud does not mean it does not happen. That's why it's important to care about potential voting fraud.
There was a proposal to install cameras on the voting booths, but it was rejected by the high court.
Surprisingly e-voting can solve these low-tech corruption problems, but it introduces a much larger attack surface.