The democratic process could move online in the near future, according to a Brighton-based e-voting expert.

Jason Kitcat, co-founder of Swing Digital, has designed an electronic voting system used by organisations around the world and would like to see wide-spread use of internet voting in the next few years.

He said: "Using technology for elections can be faster and cheaper than traditional methods.

"There's no need to pay for costly printing and distribution of ballot papers. The results can be collated and announced within moments of the polls closing, instead of staying up all night doing manual counting."

The Government has promised to provide online access to all Departmental services by 2005. Mr Kitcat believes the introduction of online voting is a natural progression from this aim.

He said: "There's no need for an overnight transition, the two systems could work alongside each other.

"Research has shown a large number of people are keen to vote online for convenience and speed. It could help gather votes from the many people who find it difficult to get to polling stations but have access to a computer on their desk all day."

Last year, Mr Kitcat set up Swing Digital to promote his own e-voting software, FREE (Free Referenda and Elections Electronically).

The software is free to download. Users can adapt the system to their needs, as long as they credit the original copyright and allow open access to modify any new versions.

The American Free Software Foundation's GNU project, the industry body for the promotion of free software, accredited the software.

It was renamed GNU.FREE to reflect protection under the organisation's general public licence.

Mr Kitcat said: "The main concerns about this type of voting have been security and privacy.

"There are no more possibilities for electoral fraud using well-designed software than there is in existing systems and we have developed a detailed authentication process which can be audited by a third-party to ensure fair play."

The right to a secret ballot is maintained by the way the electronic votes are gathered and stored.

A server holds information on eligibility to vote and, when a person registers, they are checked off on the system to prevent them placing a second fraudulent vote.

Their decision is then sent to another server which collates the scores without any record of who placed each vote.

The software has already been downloaded thousands of times and has been used to run student elections in the Philippines.

Mr Kitcat added: "I developed FREE because there was no effective software of this kind readily available.

"We can't be sure how many times it's been implemented or for what because users have no obligation to tell us why they want it.

"But the free access has many advantages. We get much more helpful feedback than a commercial product.

"Users make all sorts of adaptations which are of benefit to everyone. For example, it has been translated into nine languages, including Russian, Swedish, French and German"

Swing Digital is based in the Brighton Media Centre and employs five full-time members of staff.

www.swingdigital.com