Estonia Becomes First Country to Hold e-Elections

Last week, Estonia became the first country in the world to hold parliamentary elections through the Internet. The Baltic state voters were able to vote online February 26 to 28, instead of the standard voting process, which was held March 4. 30,275 out of 940 thousand registered voters voted online, according to official government data. "The goal is to make things easier for people, to increase participation," said Arne Koitm?e, a member of the secretariat of Estonia`s National Electoral Commission. "No one has managed to prove that e-voting actually raises participation, so that remains unanswered. But this gives people another possibility."

Estonia had already experienced online voting in the regional elections held in 2005. During that election nearly 10 thousand voters voted online. The election shows the technological novelty of the country, which has become somewhat of a regional high-tech powerhouse, since it abandoned the Soviet Union, in 1991. The most notable technologically oriented company to come from Estonia is Skype, the Internet telephone service carrier, purchased by eBay.

In order to vote the voters entered their electronic identification cards into a card reader connected to the computer through a USB cable, and entered the secured website. After the voter selects his preferred candidate, with a single click, the cards serial number is entered, and the vote is cast. More than 60% of Estonia`s 1.33 million population hold electronic identity cards, although only a few own card readers. The poles indicate that the two main coalition parties, the central-right Reform Party and the left-leaning central party, received the majority of the votes, although it is yet unclear which of the two received more votes.

                                 

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