E-voting in Estonia 2005. The first practice of country-wide binding Internet voting in the world

Abstract

At Estonian local elections in October 2005 for the first time in the world binding country-wide remote Internet voting took place: whole Estonian electorate had a possibility to cast the vote via Internet. Approximately 2 % of actual voters made use of this possibility. The e-voting surveys show that the attitude of the Estonian public toward e-voting was and is positive; gender, income, education, type of settlement and even age are no important factors by choosing e-voting from all voting channels; the use of e-voting possibility depends mostly on the trust in the procedure of e-voting and E-voting in itself does not produce any political effects. Estonian e-voting experience in 2005 reassures the hypothesis that e-voting does not raise the voting activity of people who never take part in elections, but it can encourage the participation of voters who vote sometimes. Thus, e-voting could slow down the trend of falling participation. Despite successful e-voting experience in October 2005, the political debate around e-voting has started in Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament) again. If the e- voting provisions will not be excluded from the law, the next country-wide e- voting in Estonia is taking place February-March 2007 by next Riigikogu elections.