1. Internet voting in Estonia Epp Maaten Councillor of the Elections Department Chancellery of the Riigikogu

2. e-Estonia Population: 1.35 Mio Everyday Internet usage (15-74 years old): 54% Households with a computer: 40% –81% home computers connected to the Internet

3. Why Internet-voting? The use of digital channels is steadily widening. eID card, that most of voters possess, enables secure authentication Political agreement to introduce Internet voting: - In 2002 the legislative basis for Internet voting was created. To increase turnout

4. ID card Project Started in 1997 Act on personal identification documents: Feb 1999 Digital Signature Act: March 2000 First card issued: Jan 2002 900 000 cards issued: Feb 2006 –eID card roll-out 65% of population

5. Voters’ authentication with ID-cards Compulsory for all residents Contains: –Personal data file –Certificate for authentication –Certificate for digital signature

6. First Internet voting In October 2005 Estonia had the first pan-national Internet Voting with binding results ~ 80% of voters had a chance to vote via Internet ~2% of voters used that possibility

7. System architecture

8. Envelope scheme

9. Electronic re-vote and the priority of traditional voting  Repeated e-voting is allowed - only last e-ballot is counted  Manual re-voting is allowed In order to avoid voting under coercion re-voting is allowed during advance voting period

10. To vote via Internet voter needs: an Estonian ID card with valid certificates and PIN codes Computer used for voting must have: a smart card reader a driver for ID card (free to download from page www.id.ee/installer)

11. I Website for voting www.valimised.ee www.valimised.ee

12. II Identification  Put your card into card reader  Insert PIN 1 ****

13. III Ballot completion  Choose a candidate

14. IV Authentication  Confirm your choice  Insert PIN 2 *****

15. V Confirmation

16. Statistics E-votes counted 9287 E-vote turnout (e-votes/votes) 1,85 % Advance votes among all votes 24 % E-votes among advance votes 8 % E-voters by gender:women45.7% men 54.3% E-voters by age: -2927.7% 30-59 62.4% 60 - 9.9%

17. Where Internet voters cast their ballots A.H. Trechsel, F. Breuer, E-Voting in the 2005 local elections in Estonia, http://www.ega.ee/public/Trechsel_17.02.2006.ppt

18. Internet voting frequency during voting period Estonian National Electoral Committee https://www.vvk.ee

19. Subjective reasons for not using e-voting A.H. Trechsel, F. Breuer, E-Voting in the 2005 local elections in Estonia, http://www.ega.ee/public/Trechsel_17.02.2006.ppt

20. Subjective reasons for choosing e-voting A.H. Trechsel, F. Breuer, E-Voting in the 2005 local elections in Estonia, http://www.ega.ee/public/Trechsel_17.02.2006.ppt

21. Conclusions of the survey Impacts on choosing e-voting over voting at polling station: –Trust in e-voting –Sufficient computer knowledge Age, gender, income, education do not have a significant impact E-voting is politically neutral

22. Lessons learnt Internet voting is just an additional way of voting. It widens accessibility. It takes time to change voters’ habits and attitudes and to increase the turnout. Internet voting brings people closer to the information society. Existence of a reliable and secure authentication system is vital. Internet voting is there to stay.

23. Further information Homepage of Estonian National Electoral Committee: http://www.vvk.ee/engindex.html