IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Election Commission (NEC) have announced their plans to develop a blockchain-based online voting system.

This was first reported by ZDNet. According to the official release, the new system leverages blockchain technology for storing and verifying voting results. It will go on trial in the private sector in December.

Imagine that you could vote securely on your smartphone, change your vote anytime before Election Day, and know that your vote has been counted.

The crazy quilt Americans call their election process has produced another nail-biter, with delays caused by everything from postal bottlenecks and voting machine malfunctions to an unexpected shortage of printer ink. The way votes are collected and counted in the U.S. makes recounts, lawsuits and sometimes lingering doubts over an election’s true outcome all but inevitable: You don’t have to be Donald Trump to worry that errors could have tilted a tight count toward the opposing side.

The event which took place in Venezuela last Sunday, October 7, was technologically innovative: for the first time in the world, national elections were carried out with biometric voter authentication to activate the voting machines. “Already back in 2004 we conducted the first national election worldwide with printed voting vouchers; yesterday we proved that we keep setting trends, as we carried out the first national election with biometric activation of the voting machines,” added Mugica.

With only four months until elections, officials must work quickly. They face additional pressure in Coast Province, where a secessionist group has threatened to disrupt the voter registration effort.

Over two-thirds of Swiss people believe all citizens should be able to vote online, a national survey has revealed.

A government study, published on Tuesday, revealed that demand for electronic governance services was far greater than what was on offer.

E-voting, for example, is only used by 2% of Swiss voters at present, yet 68% believe it should be open to all. Meanwhile, 12% say it should only be available to voters with disabilities and those living abroad.

The first Constituent Assembly elections in Nepal, held in 2008, were an important milestone in Nepal’s political history for they let the people’s representatives write the country’s primary law on their own. But, for Neil Kantha Uprety, an election commissioner then, they were more important because they let the public use electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the first time.

“That was a pilot project, and that proved successful,” Uprety says, “We were excited about its prospects in Nepal.”

In dem Verfahren sollte sich der Wähler durch eine Smart Card ausweisen, die Nummer des von ihm gewünschten Kandidaten eingeben und zweimal mit "OK" bestätigen. Weil dies durch die Benutzerführung offenbar nicht deutlich genug erklärt wurde, verzichteten viele auf das zweite "OK" und entfernten stattdessen ihre Smart Card – was dazu führte, dass ihre Stimme nicht gezählt wurde. Hinzu kam, dass in den vom Justizministerium herausgegebenen Anleitungen ein möglicher Abbruch des Abgabevorgangs auf ganz andere Weise erklärt wurde, was viele Wähler glauben ließ, dass sie ordnungsgemäß gewählt hätten, auch wenn dies tatsächlich nicht der Fall war.

According to the minister, the system that will be used by non-governmental organizations in the elections is one component of e-government and is not subject to the Central Election Commission, respectively, has no legal force, but may help in studies of non-governmental and other public organizations in order to have an understanding about public opinion, is identical to exit-poll.

The e-voting was transferred for the coalition's usage as a result of the competition announced by the Centre of International Relations and Calculations of the Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry, a statement said.

The component "E-voting and public opinion" allows voters registered in a constituency to participate in e-voting on candidates for MPs.

Using a voting system based upon the Internet poses a "serious and unacceptable risk" for election fraud and is not secure enough for something as serious as the election of government officials, according to the four members of the Security Peer Review Group, an advisory group formed by the US Department of Defense to evaluate a new on-line voting system.

Using a voting system based upon the Internet poses a "serious and unacceptable risk" for election fraud and is not secure enough for something as serious as the election of government officials, according to the four members of the Security Peer Review Group, an advisory group formed by the US Department of Defense to evaluate a new on-line voting system.

Once heralded as the solution to most election woes, our affinity for the paperless voting technology has dimmed. Today, experts consider it one of the biggest liabilities, and favor a return to paper ballots.

Before the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) took over as the single biggest threat to the 2020 presidential election, the security of state voting infrastructure was chief among the concerns held by many elected officials.

Mit Blick auf die Wahlen vom Herbst fordert der Auslandschweizerrat den Abbau von Hürden für Auslandschweizer. Nahezu 650 000 Schweizer lebten im Ausland, 111 000 von ihnen seien in einem Stimmregister eingetragen, schreibt der Rat in einer Mitteilung.

Auslandschweizerinnen und Auslandschweizer sollen neu die Möglichkeit erhalten, per Internet abzustimmen. Dafür haben die Regierungen der Kantone Freiburg, Solothurn, Schaffhausen, St.Gallen, Graubünden, Aargau und Thurgau unter Mitwirkung des Kantons Zürich als Lizenzgeber Zusammenarbeitsverträge abgeschlossen. Die elektronische Internetlösung wird den im Ausland wohnhaften Schweizer Stimmbürgerinnen und Stimmbürgern frühestens ab dem Jahr 2010 zur Verfügung stehen.

Its implementation in next year’s elections has not been decided yet, he said on Friday, adding that neither the Cabinet Affairs Ministry nor the e-Government Authority is entitled to decide on the issue.

The two-day trial was organised for trouble-shooting before e-voting is formally introduced in the CCC elections scheduled for June 17.

Votes will be cast through the electronic system at the 14 centres under ward number 21 in Jamalkhan area. In other wards, conventional system will be followed.