Controversy over elections and mObywatel

• Voters will scan the QR code from the card at the election commission headquarters - this is the idea of ​​the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the National Electoral Commission to verify the identity of voters using the mObywatel application.
• However, a popular tiktoker has shown the weak points of this solution. Now PiS politicians are criticizing it as dangerous and have their own idea, also related to scanning QR codes.
• For counterfeiting an identity card and using a false document, you can spend from 3 months to 5 years in prison - MC reminds.

Confirming the voter's identity is one of the most important tasks of members of electoral commissions. From 2023, you can identify yourself at the polling station with an mDowodem - a document available in the mObywatel application. However, as it turns out from an investigation conducted by analysts from the Demagog association , applications that are very similar to the government's have become common. For example, they had a visible waving Polish flag. This moving element was supposed to ensure that the voter would not show a screenshot of someone else's ID.

As analysts pointed out: Identity theft can therefore lead to a situation in which a fraudster votes for someone else. Of course, a few cases of using someone else's identity would not significantly change the election result, but revealing that such situations occurred (someone tried to vote but was unable to do so because someone had already voted for them) could cause a scandal and universally undermine trust in the electoral process.

New guidelines - QR code on the card will confirm the voter's identity

After the problem became public, the National Electoral Commission issued new guidelines for the commissions. During the upcoming presidential elections, each of them is to receive a card with a QR code . On voting day, a person who wants to identify themselves will scan this code using the mObywatel application.

Our data will then be displayed on the phone screen. The information that will appear on the voter's screen will also contain characteristic elements known to members of the electoral commission. Importantly, the solution will only work on an application updated to the latest version.

Identity verification at the polling station using a cryptographic method is the safest, assures Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski.

The National Electoral Office was supposed to decide on this solution - as we hear, it was not the only option presented to it by the Central Information Technology Centre, i.e. the government agency responsible for, among other things, mObywatel.

Fake app in every app store

However, as the popular tiktoker Gordon GWR proved - even this solution is not perfect. He prepared an application that after scanning a QR code displays any programmed content, including a fake mDowód. In this case, it does not matter what the code actually leads to.

- The Ministry of Digital Affairs together with the National Electoral Commission proposed a dangerous way of verifying identity - believes PiS MP Janusz Cieszyński. In his opinion, voters should scan the QR code, but from the phone of the election commission representatives. Then the citizen's data will be displayed on the commission member's device , and this cannot be bypassed.

- A member of the commission does not have the option of saving the data transferred on his/her phone and does not have access to the history of checks, which is why it is not necessary to use work phones. - A private phone with mObywatel installed is enough. At the same time, each polling station has access to the Internet, so the use of this solution will not require significant organizational changes - Cieszyński argues.

Together with MP Robert Gontarz , they appeal to the National Electoral Commission to urgently change the resolution with guidelines for the commission, and for the National Electoral Office, together with the Ministry of Digital Affairs, to train local governments.

What does the ministry say about this? The Ministry of Digital Affairs reminds us that KBW decided on this form and it is up to them to decide. We also asked there whether there will be changes - we are waiting for answers.

The Ministry also reminds that forging or altering a document, as well as using such a document as an authentic one, is punishable by imprisonment from 3 months to 5 years.