Estonian capital city to hold Internet elections in 2005

Tallinn, Estonia’s capital city, will trial an Internet voting system in early 2005 and hold Internet elections before the end of the year. The system could be extended nationwide for the 2007 legislative elections. Residents of the capital will be able to vote from any PC connected to the Internet during the next local elections scheduled for Autumn 2005. In order to cast their ballots online, voters will need to have an electronic ID card, a card reader, and access to the Internet. This first Internet vote could pave the way for nationwide remote e-elections in 2007. "If the tests are successful, the e-voting system will also be used in parliamentary elections", Toomas Sepp, spokesman for Tallinn's city government, told the press. The city authorities will organise a trial referendum in early 2005, in a last rehearsal exercise before the electronic elections. The Internet voting software is currently still being developed and should be ready by the end of 2004. Tallinn’s planned e-voting pilot and e-elections are both part of the Estonian national Internet voting project launched in August 2003. They will allow large-scale testing of the system, which is based on a public key infrastructure (PKI) enabling secure personal authentication using digital signatures and ID cards. Currently, over 500,000 Estonian citizens have an e-ID card and it is estimated that about 800,000 cards will have been issued before the end of 2005, thus covering most of the eligible voters. According to Estonian election legislation, which was modified in 2002 to accommodate electronic elections, Internet voting will take place from the 6th to the 4th day before Election Day. Voters will cast their ballots through the National Electoral Committee’s website using an “envelope” system. With this system, the voter inserts the ID-card into a card reader, makes the voting decision, which is encrypted (the “inner envelope”), and confirms his/her choice with a digital signature (the “outer envelope”). The voter then receives a confirmation that the vote has been recorded. According to the National Electoral Committee, the Internet voting system provides a basis for conducting e-voting “at least as securely as traditional voting” provided that sufficient organisational, physical and technical security measures are implemented. http://europa.eu.int/ida/en/document/3478/5648