Experimentation on secure Internet voting in Spain

Abstract

A major step forward along the path towards the implementation of secure Internet voting in Spain was taken in November 2003. For the first time in this country, a non-binding remote electronic voting pilot was run in parallel to a public election, in particular the 2003 election to the Parliament of Catalonia. The e-voting pilot was also the first of this kind to gain the requisite approval by Spain's Central Electoral Council, ant it is still the most significant up to date. The objective of the trial was to evaluate the advantages, usability, security and reliability of this voting system in consideration of its potential use in future elections, mainly as a complementary channel to postal voting. The trial provided valuable empirical information regarding practical technological and social issues surrounding e-voting.