Electronic voting in Estonia

The idea of having electronic voting in Estonia originated in early 2001 and quickly gained popularity among heads of the then proactively "e-minded" coalition government of the small northeastern European country. The realization of the project came in the October 2005 local elections when Estonia became the first country to have legally binding general elections using the Internet as a means of casting the vote. The system withstood the test of reality and was declared a success by the Estonian election officials. The 2007 parliamentary elections followed with second successful use of Internet voting. [ [http://www.vvk.ee/r07/press_info_en.stm Election Day Turn-out] ]

Internet voting

Although the term "electronic voting" (or "e-voting") can refer to both stationary (as in voting booth) and remote (as in over the Internet) electronic voting, in Estonia the term is used exclusively for remote Internet voting.

Overview of Estonian Internet voting

The Estonian e-voting system utilizes the Estonian ID card and the two-fold use of it. On the one hand it is a regular and mandatory national identity document. [ [http://www.pass.ee/2.html What is the ID card?] ] As of March 2007 over 1.04 million [ [http://www.id.ee/pages.php/03030102 ID Card Issuing Statistics] ] cards have been issued (out of a population of about 1.32 million). The ID card is also a smart card with an integrated electronic chip together with a state supported public key infrastructure allowing for both secure remote authentication and legally binding digital signatures.

Internet voting is available during an early voting period (sixth day to fourth day prior to Election Day). Voters can change their electronic votes an unlimited number of times, with the final vote being tabulated. It is also possible for anyone who votes using the Internet to vote at a polling station during the early voting period, invalidating their Internet vote. It is not possible to change or annul the electronic vote on the Election Day. [ [http://www.valimised.ee/teema_eng.html Elections and E-Voting] ]

The principle of "one person, one vote" is sustained as the voter can potentially cast more than one ballot but still only a single vote. This was challenged by the then President of Estonia who saw it as a breach of the principle of equality of voting. The President used his right of veto and went to the National Court, which gave the green light for the e-voting provisions in the Local Government Council Election Act. [ [http://www.nc.ee/?id=381 Judgment of the Constitutional Review Chamber of the Supreme Court, Case No. 3-4-1-13-05] ] Those provisions were later applied to the other elections.

2007 Elections

In 2007 Estonia held its and the world's first general Internet election. Voting was available from February 26 to 28. [ [http://news.com.com/Estonia+to+hold+first+national+Internet+election/2100-1028_3-6161005.html Estonia to hold first national Internet election] , News.com, February 21, 2007] A total of 30,275 citizens used Internet voting. [ [http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197700272 Estonia Scores World Web First In National Polls] , InformationWeek February 28, 2007]

2005 Elections

In 2005 Estonia became the first country to offer Internet voting nationally in local elections. [ [http://news.com.com/Estonia+pulls+off+nationwide+Net+voting/2100-1028_3-5898115.html Estonia pulls off nationwide Net voting] , News.com, October 17, 2005] 9,317 people voted online.

Outcome and results

See the material on the homepage of the Estonian National Electoral Committee: http://www.vvk.ee/engindex.html

Main statistics (source: "Internet Voting at the Elections of Local Government Councils on October 2005. Report." [http://www.vvk.ee/english/report2006.pdf] Table 11, p 27)

Number of persons with the right to vote: 1,059,292 Votes: 502,504 - valid (with e-votes) 496,336 - invalid 6,168 Voter turnout: 47% E-votes given: 9,681 - incl. repeated e-votes 364 Number of e-voters: 9,317 E-votes counted: 9,287 E-votes cancelled: 30 Percentage of e-votes among all votes: 1.85% Percentage of e-votes among votes of advance polls: 8% Number of e-voters who used ID card electronically for the first time: 5,774 Percentage of e-voters who used ID card electronically for the first time: 61%

References

ee also

* Electronic voting
* Estonian parliamentary election, 2007

External links for further reading

* [http://www.vvk.ee/engindex.html Estonian National Electoral Committee homepage] English language version
* [http://www.coe.int/t/e/integrated_projects/democracy/02_Activities/02_e-voting/00_E-voting_news/FinalReportEvotingEstoniaCoE6_3_06.asp#TopOfPage E-Voting in the 2005 local elections in Estonia] by Fabian Breuer and Alexander H. Trechsel, European University Institute, Report for the Council of Europe
* [http://db.e-voting.cc/ee E-Voting Uses in Elections in Estonia] Entry on Estonia in the International E-Voting Database hosted by E-Voting.CC
* [http://triinu.net/e-voting/master%20thesis%20e-voting%20security.pdf Practical Security Analysis of E-voting Systems] by Triinu Mägi, a master thesis studying the security of the Estonian e-voting system and Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE)
* [http://www.ega.ee/?id=27240 E-Voting Conference: Lessons learnt and future challenges] Agenda and presentations of the Oct 2006 Tallinn conference, hosted by the [http://www.ega.ee/?lang=en e-Governance Academy] (an Estonian e-governance and e-democracy NGO, organiser of the event)
* [http://www.e-voting.cc/topics/Conference 2nd International Workshop on Electronic Voting 2006] in Bregenz, Austria.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHIH9ZBFrW0 An interview on YouTube about the trust-aspect of i-voting in Estonia] with [http://www.poli-sci.utah.edu/HALL.htm Thad Hall] from the University of Utah who was observing the elections in Estonia. Skip to 01:30 for the actual interview.
* [http://www.wired.com/news/politics/evote/0,72846-0.html?tw=wn_index_24 "Online Voting Clicks in Estonia"] An article in Wired News on e-voting in Estonia that is also mentioned at the beginning of the interview with Thad Hall.