Electronic voting examples

The following is a list of examples of electronic voting from elections around the world. Examples include polling place voting electronic voting and Internet voting.

Australia

The first known use of the term CyberVote was by Midac in 1995 when they ran a web based vote regarding the French nuclear testing in the Pacific region. The resulting petition was delivered to the French government on a Syquest removable hard disk. [The Age, Melbourne; September 5, 1995 ref [http://open4success.net/Olnews/oln/1042.html International Internet NewsClips] ]

In October 2001 electronic voting was used for the first time in an Australian parliamentary election. In that election, 16,559 voters (8.3% of all votes counted) cast their votes electronically at polling stations in four places. [http://www.aceproject.org/ace-en/focus/e-voting/countries ACE Electoral Knowledge Network] ] The Victorian State Government introduced electronic voting on a trial basis for the 2006 State election. [http://www.vec.vic.gov.au/electronicvoting.html Victorian Electoral Commission Electronic Voting Pilot] ]

Approximately 300,000 impaired Australians will vote independently for the first time in the 2007 elections. The Australian Electoral Commission has decided to implement voting machines in 29 locations. [ [http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s2005681.htm Blind and visually impaired will be able to cast secret ballots] , Macey, Jennifer. [http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/ ABC's The World Today] ]

In 2007 Australian Defence Force and Defence civilian personnel deployed on operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands had the opportunity to vote via the Defence Restricted Network with an Australian Electoral Commission and Defence Department joint pilot project. [ [http://www.aec.gov.au/About_AEC/Media_releases/09_18.htm Electronic Voting Trial for Deployed Defence Personnel] from the Australian Electoral Commission] After votes were recorded, they were encrypted and transmitted from a Citrix server to the REV database A total of 2012 personnel registered for and 1511 votes were successfully cast in the pilot, [ [http://www.aec.gov.au/pdf/voting/evoting_reports/adf/adf_final_evaluation.pdf Evaluation of the remote electronic voting trial for overseas based ADF personnel electors at the 2007 Federal Election] , Australian Electoral Commission. March 2008] costing an estimated $521 per vote. [http://www.aec.gov.au/pdf/voting/evoting_reports/adf/adf_trial_report.pdf Remote Electronic Voting at the 2007 Federal Election for Overseas Australian Defence Force Personnel] , a joint report between the AEC’s E-voting Team and Defence.] Electronically submitted votes were printed following polling day, and dispatched to the relevant Divisions for counting.

Belgium

Electronic voting in Belgium started in 1991. It is widely used in Belgium for general and municipal elections and has been since 1999.

Brazil

Electronic voting in Brazil was introduced in 1996, when the first tests were carried in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Since 2000, all Brazilian elections have been fully electronic. By the 2000 and 2002 elections more than 400 thousand electronic voting machines were used nationwide in Brazil and the results were tallied electronically within minutes after the polls closed. Joao Abud Jr. who was with the original Brazilian company and has served as president of Diebold Procom Industria Electronica since April 2003, has been promoted to vice president of the company's Latin American Division.

Canada

Electronic voting in Canada has been used since at least the 1990s at the municipal level in many cities, and there are increasing efforts in a few areas to introduce it at a provincial level.

In the Canadian Province of Ontario, from November 5 to November 10 2003, 12 municipalities from the Prescott Russell and Stormont Dundas & Glengarry Counties held the first full municipal and school board electronic elections in North America using either the Internet or the phone but no paper ballots.

Peterborough, Ontario used Internet voting in 2006 in addition to the paper ballots. [ [http://www.peterboroughvotes.ca/ City of Peterborough 2006 Municipal Election Website] ]

Estonia

Electronic voting in Estonia began in 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 and was declared a success by the Estonian election officials.

In 2007 Estonia held its and the world's first National 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]

EU CyberVote Project

In September 2000, the European Commission launched the CyberVote project with the aim of demonstrating "fully verifiable on-line elections guaranteeing absolute privacy of the votes and using fixed and mobile Internet terminals".

Trials were performed in Sweden, France, and Germany. [ [http://www.eucybervote.org/index.html EU CyberVote project] ]

France

In January 2007 France's UMP party held a national presidential primary using both remote electronic voting and with 750 polling stations using touch screen electronic voting over the Internet. The election resulted in over 230,000 votes representing a near 70% turnout. [ [http://www.election-europe.com/PressReleaseUMP.pdf E-VOTING: French Political Party UMP Makes History!] ]

Elections in France utilized remote Internet voting for the first time in 2003 when French citizens living in the United States elected their representatives to the Assembly of the French Citizens Abroad. Over 60% of voters chose to vote using the Internet rather than paper. The [http://www.foruminternet.org/ Forum des droits sur l'Internet] (Internet rights forum), published a recommendation on the future of electronic voting in France, stating that French citizens abroad should be able to use Internet voting for Assembly of the French Citizens Abroad elections. [ [http://www.foruminternet.org/telechargement/documents/reco-evote-en-20030926.pdf WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF ELECTRONIC VOTING IN FRANCE?] , The Internet rights forum 26 September 2003]

Germany

In Germany the only accredited voting machines after testing by the PTB [http://www.berlin.ptb.de/8/85/851/votingmachines.htm for national] and local elections are the ESD1 and ESD2 from the Dutch company Nedap. About 2000 of them have been used in the 2005 Bundestag elections covering approximately 2 million voters. [ [http://www.efve.eu/Germany efve.eu: Voting computer situation in Germany] ] These machines differ only in certain details due to different voting systems from the ES3B hacked by a Dutch citizen group and the Chaos Computer Club on October 5, 2006. [ [http://www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/images/9/91/Es3b-en.pdf Nedap/Groenendaal ES3B voting computer, a security analysis] ] [ [http://berlin.ccc.de/index.php/Wahlmaschinen CCC Information on voting computers de icon] ] Because of this, additional security measures have been applied in the municipality elections on 22. October 2006 in Cottbus, including reading the software from the EPROM to compare it with the source and sealing the machines afterwards. [ [http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/79480 Wahlcomputer in Cottbus geprüft und versiegelt de icon] ] The city of Cottbus ultimately decided not to purchase the Nedap voting system it had previously been leasing. [ [http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/84396 Cottbus verabschiedet sich von Wahlcomputern] heise.de, 29 January 2007 de icon]

At the moment there are several lawsuits in court against the use of electronic voting machines in Germany. [ [http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/80742 Misstrauen gegen Wahlgeräte: Wahleinspruch in Cottbus (de icon] ] [ [http://www.ulrichwiesner.de Informations on Electronic Voting lawsuit by Ulrich Wiesner] ] One of these reached the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany in February 2007. [ [http://www.heise.de/ct/hintergrund/meldung/85615 Verfassungsklage gegen Wahlcomputer] (Heise Hintergrund, February 21, 2007, German)] Critics cite a lack transparency when recording the votes as intended by the voter and concerns relating to recounts. The certified Nedap machines are DRE systems which do not produce any paper records.

Following a 2005 pilot study during the national elections, wide public support and a unianimous decision by the Senate launched a plan for the implementation of an optical scan voting system based on digital paper in the 2008 state elections of Hamburg. [ [http://fee.iavoss.org/2006/papers/fee-2006-iavoss-New-Generation-of-Voting-Machines-in-Germany.pdf New Generation of Voting Machines in Germany] ] [ [http://fhh.hamburg.de/stadt/Aktuell/wahl/digitaler_20wahlstift/pilotstudie,property=source.pdf Pilotstudie zum Digitalen Wahlstift (Pilot study on the digital dial pen )(de icon] ] After unsubstantiated public claims is September 2007 by the Fraktion der Grünen/GAL and the Chaos Computer Club that the system vulnerable,the National Election Office (Landeswahlamtes) found in public surveys that while the systems usability was widely accepted, public distrust of the system was evident. Due to concerns over public confidence plans for use of the new voting system have been canceled. However, the Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik) will continue the certification process of the Digital Pen. [ [http://fhh.hamburg.de/stadt/Aktuell/wahl/digitaler_20wahlstift/start.html Das Digitale Wahlstift-System(de icon] ]

India

Electronic voting in India was first introduced in 1982 and was used on an experimental basis in the North Parur assembly constituency in the State of Kerala. However the Supreme Court of India struck down this election as against the law in A C Jose v. Sivan Pillai case. Amendments were made to the Representation of Peoples Act to legalise elections using Electronic Voting Machines. In 2003, all state elections and by-elections were held using EVMs.

Ireland

Ireland bought voting computers from the Dutch company Nedap for about 50 million euro. The machines were used on a 'pilot' basis in some constituencies in two elections in 2002. Due to campaigning by [http://evoting.cs.nuim.ie ICTE] , Joe McCarthy, and the work of the [http://www.cev.ie Commission on Electronic Voting] , the machines have not been used since, and their future is uncertain. [ [http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0430/evoting.html Cullen rules out use of e-voting in June] ]

"See also Electronic voting in Ireland"

Italy

On the 9th and 10th of April 2006 the Italian municipality of Cremona used Nedap Voting machines during the national elections. The pilot involved 3000 electors and 4 polling stations were equipped with Nedap systems. The electoral participation was very high and the pilot was successful. [ [http://www.electionsystems.eu/website/Read.php?PageID=1182 Prima sperimentazione voto elettronico con NEDAP in Italia: CREMONA it icon] ]

During the same elections (April 2006) the Ministry of New Technologies in cooperation with two big American companies organized a pilot only concerning e-counting. The experiment involved four regions and it cost 34 million of euro.Fact|date=September 2007

Netherlands

Since the late nineties, voting machines are used extensively during elections. Most areas in the Netherlands use electronic voting in polling places. The most widely used voting machines are produced by the company Nedap. [ [http://www.sos.cs.ru.nl/research/society/voting/ Security of Systems Group of the Nijmegen Institute for Computing and Information Sciences] ] In the parliamentary elections of 2006, 21,000 persons will be using the [ [http://www.rijnland.net/asp/get.asp?ItmIdt=00006064&VarIdt=00000001&mode= RIES Internet voting system] ] to cast their vote.

On 5. October 2006 the group "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" ("We do not trust voting machines") demonstrated on Dutch television how the Nedap ES3B machines could be manipulated in 5 minutes. The exchange of the software would not be recognisable by voters or election officials. [ [http://www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/images/9/91/Es3b-en.pdf Nedap/Groenendaal ES3B voting computer, a security analysis] ] [ [http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/79106 Dutch citizens group cracks Nedap's voting computer] ]

Apparently there was a case of an election official misinforming voters of when their vote is recorded and later recording it himself during municipality elections in Landerd, Netherlands in 2006. A candidate was also an election official and got the unusual amount of 181 votes in the polling place where he was working. In the other three polling places together he got 11 votes. [ [http://www.wahlsysteme.de/Wahlnachrichten/2006_Menschenwerk%20und%20kein%20Maschinenwerk.pdf Statement of voting machine manufacturer Nedap de icon] ] Only circumstantial evidence could be found because the voting machine was a direct-recording electronic voting machine, in a poll by a local newspaper the results were totally different. The case is still under prosecution. [ [http://www.brabantsdagblad.nl/brabant/article247185.ece Raadslid Landerd is stuk minder populair in schaduwverkiezing (dutch)] ]

Van Eck phreaking might also compromise the secrecy of the votes in an election using electronic voting. This made the Dutch government ban the use of computer voting machines manufactured by SDU in the 2006 national elections, fearing that secret ballots may not be kept secret. [ [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/30/europe/EU_GEN_Netherlands_Voting_Machines.php Dutch government scraps plans to use voting computers in 35 cities including Amsterdam (Herald tribune, 30. October 2006)] ]

:"See also: "

In September 2007 a committee chaired by Korthals Altes reported for the government that it would be better to return to paper voting. The deputy minister for interior Bijleveld said in a first response she would accept the committee's advice, and ban electronic voting. The committee also concluded that the time wasn't ready for voting over Internet. [nl icon [http://www.adviescommissieinrichtingverkiezingsproces.nl/taak/rapport Rapport adviescommissie inrichting verkiezingsproces] , "Adviescommissie inrichting verkiezingsproces", September 27, 2007] ] State secretary Ank Bijleveld responded by announcing a return to paper voting.Fact|date=September 2007. It was reported in September 2007 that "a Dutch judge has declared the use of Nedap e-voting machines in recent Dutch elections unlawful." [ [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/01/dutch_pull_plug_on_evoting/ Dutch pull the plug on e-voting] ]

Norway

The [http://odin.dep.no/krd/ Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development] of Norway carried out pilots in three municipalities at local elections in 2003 on voting machines in the polling stations using touch screens.

Romania

Romania first implemented electronic voting systems in 2003 [ [http://www.e-guvernare.ro/ Romanian General Inspectorate for Communications and Information Technology] ] , on a limited basis, to extend voting capabilities to soldiers and others serving in Iraq, and other theaters of war. Despite the publicly stated goal of fighting corruption, the equipment was procured and deployed in less than 30 days [ [http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/1665/347 European Commission finding on Romania 2003] ] after the government edict passed.

witzerland

Several cantons (Geneva, Neuchâtel and Zürich) have developed Internet voting test projects to allow citizens to vote via the Internet [ [http://www.geneve.ch/evoting/english/welcome.asp E-Voting - Home ] ] .

United Kingdom

England

Voting pilots have taken place in May 2006, [ [http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/elections/pilotsmay2006.cfm May 2006 pilot schemes] from the UK Electoral Commission] June 2004, [ [http://www.dca.gov.uk/elections/euro/pilotorder.pdf EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY AND LOCAL ELECTIONS (ALL-POSTAL) PILOT ORDER 2004] from the UK Electoral Commission] May 2003, [ [http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/about-us/03pilotscheme.cfm 2003 election reports archive] from the UK Electoral Commission] May 2002, and May 2000.

In 2000, the London Mayoral and Assembly elections were counted using an optical scan voting system with software provided by DRS plc of Milton Keynes. In 2004, the London Mayoral, Assembly and European Parliamentary elections were scanned and processed using optical character recognition from the same company. Both elections required some editing of the ballot design to facilitate electronic tabulation, though they differed only slightly from the previous 'mark with an X' style ballots.Fact|date=September 2007

cotland

An optical scan voting system was be used to electronically count paper ballots in the Scottish Parliament general election and Scottish council elections in 2007. [ [http://election.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1064&id=588392006 "Electronic counting to take over from tellers at elections"] , "The Scotsman", 19 April, 2006] [ [http://www.drs.co.uk/corporate/newsitem.asp?id=106 "Green light for DRS & ERS to deliver e-Count for 2007 Scottish Elections"] , press release, DRS Data Services Limited] A report commissioned by the UK Electoral Commission found significant errors in ballot design produced more than 150,000 spoilt votes. [ [http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/elections/scotelectionsreview.cfm Scottish Elections Review] from the UK Electoral Commission, October 23, 2007]

References