Estonia 2005 the first practice of Internet voting

Epp MaatenCouncillor of the Elections Department

Chancellery of the Riigikogu

Strasbourg, 23 November 2006

Why Internet-voting?

• To provide additional channel for voting, raising thereby voting activity • To use the existing infrastructure more efficiently:

- eID cards enable secure online-authentication- the use of digital channels is steadily widening

• Political agreement to introduce Internet voting: - In 2002 the legislative basis was created

Voters’ authentication withID-cards

• Compulsory for all residents

• Contains:– Personal data file– Certificate for authentication – Certificate for digital signature

First Internet voting

• In October 2005 Estonia had the

first pan-national Internet Voting with binding results

• 80% of voters had a chance to vote via Internet

• 1% of voters used that possibility

To vote via Internet voter needs:

• an Estonian ID card

with valid certificates

and PIN codes

Computer used for voting must have:

• a smart card reader • a driver for ID card (free to download from page www.id.ee/installer)

Statistics

E-votes given 9681incl repeated votes 364incl e-votes cancelled by paper ballot

30

E-votes counted 9287E-vote turnout (e-votes/votes) ~2 %

Advance votes among all votes 24 %E-votes among advance votes 8 %

Voters using the ID card electronically for the first time 61 %

Subjective reasons for not using e-voting

67,1

21,4

4,2

3,2

2,2

1,9

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

technological complexity,no access

current system suff icient,habits, simplicity

loss of traditions, humancontacts needed

lack of trust, doubts

other

absurd, useless,impossible

% o

f re

sp

on

de

nts

A.H. Trechsel, F. Breuer, E-Voting in the 2005 local elections in Estonia,

http://www.ega.ee/public/Trechsel_17.02.2006.ppt

Subjective reasons for choosing e-voting

75,2

18,8

5,1

0,3

0,3

0,3

0 20 40 60 80

convenience:spped/practical/simple

interest, w ish to try outthe new method

better accessibility for allpeople

innovation; modernity

costs: less expensive,saving of time

security can beguaranteed

% o

f re

spo

nd

ents

A.H. Trechsel, F. Breuer, E-Voting in the 2005 local elections in Estonia,

http://www.ega.ee/public/Trechsel_17.02.2006.ppt

Electronic re-vote and the priority of traditional voting

Repeated e-voting is allowed - only last e-ballot is counted

Manual re-voting is allowed - e-vote will be cancelled

Re-voting is allowed during advance voting period.

Decision of the Supreme Court of Estonia on Internet voting

• The possibility to change one’s electronic vote is a supplementary guarantee the freedom of elections and secrecy of voting upon electronic voting.

• The possibility of electronic voters to change their votes for unlimited number of times can be regarded as the infringement of the right to equality and of uniformity of election, but this infringement is not sufficiently intensive to overweigh the aim of increasing the participation in elections and intro-ducing new technological solutions.

Conclusions• Internet voting is just an additional way of voting.

It widens accessibility.

• It takes time to change voters’ habits and attitudes and to increase the turnout.

• Internet voting brings people closer to the information society.

• Integrated functioning of public sector IT systems raises the cost-efficiency.

• Internet voting is there to stay.

Further information

Homepage of Estonian National Electoral Committee:

http://www.vvk.ee/engindex.html