Estonian Internet Voting Called a Success 291
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.
Re:Isn't Estonia that "fake country" in Dilbert? (Score:5, Informative)
You're welcome.
Re:Isn't Estonia that "fake country" in Dilbert? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:i disagree.. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Privacy? (Score:3, Informative)
Do you mean are they supposed to be, or if they can be? I'm assuming they aren't supposed to be, but without a doubt they can be. The cards are used "for online access to bank accounts and tax record", so they clearly identify the user, which would be required to prevent duplicate voting, and thus they know who you are when you access the system. I'm sure they claim that they don't associate the user with the subsequent vote, but it would be simple as pie to store that information.
This is exactly why I don't want a system like this in the U.S., for exactly the reason you state: coercion and retaliation.
Re:It's ELBONIA (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A success? With a 1% turnout? (Score:3, Informative)
The vote wasn't exclusively online. Everyone else who voted did it the normal way- this just expands the options for casting your vote.
Estonia a little reality check (Score:5, Informative)
It was never an ethnically Russian area.
Re:This should not exist (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:Some of the best things come from Estonia (Score:2, Informative)
and same programmers did also the Skype.
Re:Privacy? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Privacy? (Score:4, Informative)
Its the official Vabariigi valimiskomision (National Electoral Commitee) page.
There is even an english section.
Re:info? (Score:2, Informative)