The idea of having electronic voting in Estonia came up in early 2001 and quickly gained popularity among figureheads of the then proactively e-minded coalition government of the small Northern-Eastern-European country. The realisation of the project came in the October 2005 local elections when Estonia became the first country to have legally binding general elections using the Internet as one means of casting the vote. The system withstood the test of reality (at least in terms of technology) and after being declared a success by the Estonian election officials is now waiting to be used again in the March 2007 elections of the Riigikogu (the parliament of Estonia). Electronic voting machine used in all Brazilian elections and plebiscites. ...

On the use of terms

Although the term electronic voting (or e-voting) can refer to both stationary (as in voting booth) and remote (as in over the Internet) electronic voting, in Estonia the term is used exclusively for remote Internet voting.

Overview of the Estonian e-voting

The Estonian e-voting system is based and relies on the Estonian ID-card and the two-fold use of it. On the one hand it is a regular and mandatory national identity document [1]. As of May 2006 over 930 000 [2] cards have been issued (out of a population of about 1.32 million). The peculiarity of the ID card lies in its digital side -- the electronic chip integrated on the card together with a state supported public key infrastructure allow for both secure remote authentification and legally binding digital signatures. China ID card 居民身份证 ,front (top) back (bottom). ... In cryptography, a public key infrastructure (PKI) is an arrangement that provides for trusted third party vetting of, and vouching for, user identities. ...

To be able to cast an electronic vote the voter needs a computer with Internet access, the ID-card and a card reader. Therefore the number of ID cards issued only shows the potential for electronic voting, as far as card readers are not that common yet.

At the 2005 local elections one could cast an electronic vote only on the time of advance voting (sixth day before to fourth day before Election Day). The voter could change her/his electronic vote an unlimited number of times. The electronic vote to be counted was in this case the last one cast. On the Election Day it was possible to go to the home voting station to cast a paper ballot. In such case the electronic vote was cancelled and only the paper ballot counted.

The principle of "one person, one vote" is sustained through the definition of the vote being the influence of a voter on the outcome of the elections (instead of the number of times a voter has cast a ballot, being it an electronic or a traditional one). It is important to note though that this was challenged by the President of Estonia who saw it as a breach of the principle of equality of voting. The President used his right of veto and went to the National Court, which gave the green light for the e-voting provisions in the Local Government's Council Election Act.

Outcome, results

See the material on the homepage of the Estonian National Electoral Committee: http://www.vvk.ee/engindex.html

Main statistics (source: [3] Table 11, p 27)

 Number of persons with the right to vote: 1,059,292 Votes: 502,504 - valid (with e-votes) 496,336 - invalid 6,168 Voter turnout: 47% E-votes given: 9,681 - incl. repeated e-votes 364 Number of e-voters: 9,317 E-votes counted: 9,287 E-votes cancelled: 30 Percentage of e-votes among all votes: 1.85% Percentage of e-votes among votes of advance polls: 8% Number of e-voters who used ID card electronically for the first time: 5,774 Percentage of e-voters who used ID card electronically for the first time: 61% 

See also

• Electronic voting