Experts remain divided over the use of technology to replace the plain old polling booth or postal vote.
Whole-hearted supporters, who are often the very officials running e-voting programmes, see the online ballot as the way of the future.
The Netherlands has this week repeated its experiment of 2004, when expatriate voters were first able to vote via the internet in European parliamentary elections.
This time, overseas Dutch had their chance in Wednesday's national elections. Some 17 000 of the 30 000 eligible voters signed up to do so.
Pioneer
The Baltic nation of Estonia is a pioneer — it is the only country in the world to offer formal e-voting for its 920 000-strong electorate.
Estonians were able to cast their first mouse-click ballot in local elections in October 2005, and will get their next chance in a parliamentary poll next March.
Ivar Tallo, director of Estonia's E-Governance Academy, is convinced that internet voting will soon be widespread.
He pointed to the rapid rise of online tax declarations — in 2000, only nine percent of Estonians chose the internet option, but the figure had jumped to 82 percent by last year.
"It's not a surprise that new e-services are not used immediately. To attain this, we must fight against the conservatism which lies in us, it is difficult to change our habits," said Tallo.
E-voting experiments across Europe have proven that the technology works, said Michael Remmert, who runs internet projects at the Council of Europe.
"E-voters are satisfied and feel that e-voting is responding to their modern lifestyle," said Remmert.
"But so far popular demand has not been very strong," so governments don't see the need to make the leap, he added.
Wary
Britain and France have already held large-scale e-voting tests, but most other countries are still at the drawing board.
Jordi Barrat, an expert from the University of Leon in Spain, said that the wariness can be explained by the lack of transparency of the internet.
"With e-voting, we are forced to trust the technicians," he said.
"In spite of a lack of control, e-voting could be accepted by society because of its advantages," if they are seen as outstripping the downsides, Barrat added.
Some countries see the internet as a solution to falling turnout.
In Switzerland, weary voters are called regularly to the polls several times a year for referenda, which are the core of the Alpine country's system of direct democracy.
Swiss authorities see e-voting as a way to fight voter fatigue, in the same vein as the postal ballot, which helped boost participation by 20 percent when it was introduced in the 1990s.
Geneva, one of federal Switzerland's 26 states, has organised experimental e-ballots in eight referenda since 2003.
Lawmakers there are scheduled to debate a bill next year to formally launch internet voting, although opponents have expressed concerns about the risk of virtual ballot fraud.
Other Swiss states are further behind, although Neuchatel and Zurich are organising new tests in referenda this weekend.
According to experts, however, it is too early to say whether the internet really helps boost turnout.
"In Estonia, only 12 to 15 percent of e-voters, who were themselves only two percent of total voters, said they would probably not have voted otherwise," said Alexander Trechsel, a Swiss professor based at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
Ulle Madise, an advisor to the Estonian parliament, said that supporters of e-voting don't see the internet as a magic wand.
"I have never thought that those who never vote will vote, but it may convince voters who are lazy or busy," she said.
According to research by Trechsel, the internet has little impact on election results.
He said that e-voters are no different from their pencil and paper counterparts in terms of their age, gender, income or education.
The only thing that distinguishes them is that they are comfortable using a computer — and such individuals are found across the political spectrum — he said.
Autor(en)/Author(s): AFP
Quelle/Source: iAfrica, 24.11.2006
