Slashdot Mirror
Estonian Internet Voting Called a Success
composer314 writes "The Associated Press is reporting that the small European nation of Estonia has conducted large-scale voting over the Internet. From the article: "Last week, Estonia became the first country in the world to hold an election allowing voters nationwide to cast ballots over the internet. Fewer than 10,000 people, or 1 percent of registered voters, participated online in elections for mayors and city councils across the country, but officials hailed the experiment as a success." The system is built on Linux." I guess it works well when the Internet is considered a human right.
Estonia
You're welcome.
No, that's Elbonia- Estonia is about 50 miles north of where Elbonia is supposed to be. They're full of forests and songs instead of mud. (no, really- their revolution was called the "singing revolution" because as the soviet tanks were leaving, they were followed by crowds of people singing songs. Velio Tormis was their "Conductor General", and they've only been free since 1992).
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Are you saying that only 49% of the population COULD have voted at all in the election? If so you're severly misinformed. 1% isn't the total number of people who voted, but the total number of people who voted online.
The following are actual countries ending in -stan Former members of the USSR: - Kazakhstan - Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan - Tajikistan - Kyrgyzstan Not members of the USSR: - Afghanistan (but almost!) - Pakistan "-stan" is a suffix in Farsi and Sanskrit meaning "home" or "place of". For a full list of national, regional, and ficticious -stans, see -stan article on wikipedia.
From the article, and the summary... "Fewer than 10,000 people, or 1 percent of registered voters, participated *online* in elections for mayors and city councils across the country" (stars added by me)
The vote wasn't exclusively online. Everyone else who voted did it the normal way- this just expands the options for casting your vote.
"Quoting yourself is stupid." -Me
Estonia was part of the Russian empire until 1918, it was independent from 1918 to 1940 when it was forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union, all along it has been an ethnically distinct region. Estonia had only been part of Russia for 200 years prior to 1710 it had been part of either Denmark, Poland or Sweden.
It was never an ethnically Russian area.
there is no guarantee with any kind of voting that the vote has not been bought - the only difference with distance voting is that people can look over your shoulder to check you vote the way you're paid to.
however, the estonian system has several interesting measures to combat this. you can vote online as many times as you like - only your last vote will count. so once the mobster has left, you just vote again. also a paper ballot takes supremacy over an internet ballot, so voting in person in a secret booth is still entirely possible even after voting online (a good fallback for people concerned about the security of their online vote too)
all in all, it seems like a very well thought-out online voting system, designed to complement rather than replace the paper ballot system. a shame that it requires a national ID card.
Find out it at http://www.vvk.ee/
Its the official Vabariigi valimiskomision (National Electoral Commitee) page.
There is even an english section.