Estonia made history recently for being the first country to embrace e-voting for a national parliamentary election within the European Union. From February 26 to 28, online polls were poised and ready for 900,000 Estonians to use the online voting system. Some 30,000 Estonians chose to vote online prior to election day, the BBC reports, possible because Estonians older than 15 years of age are required to carry an electronic identification card at all times.
E-voting systems have been tried on smaller scales in the UK and Ireland for local elections. Estonia has seen a smaller e-voting scenario in October 2005, when 10,000 people voted. Estonia expected to have 20,000 to 40,000 people vote via Internet ahead of the March 4 traditional voting.
In North America, online voting was tried in Arizona in 2000, however a series of Y2K glitches interfered with its success.
Despite worries about security breaches, the Estonian government assures that because people already have their own ID cards and corresponding PIN numbers, there is less of a chance of tampering with votes. The issue was forced voting, since election protocol made it possible to cast multiple votes and each subsequent vote cancels out the previous one.
It was also possible for individuals to go to the actual polling stations on March 4 and enter in a traditional ballot, which cancelled their online vote.
Since Estonia’s separation from the Soviet Union in 1991, it has become one of the leaders in e-government. Harvard University has named it among the top five most efficient governments.
BBC News reports that the massive publicity campaign for this most recent election promoted e-voting as a quicker and cheaper way of collecting and counting ballots. As a result of falling turnout to election polls, the Estonian government is opening their mind to a partially paperless election in hopes that more citizens will exercise their democratic right through modern technology.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Ashley Doodnauth
Quelle/Source: The Cord Weekly, 07.03.2007
