Estonia has become a world digital power and we have reviewed different aspects that position it as a leader in innovation. On this occasion, we will review its electoral system, which has had electronic voting since 2005.
Throughout this series of articles on Estonia as a digital power, we have seen different aspects that make this country what it is. In this edition, we will review their electronic democracy and how they have implemented this modality in their different processes.
Electronic voting was implemented in 2005 in municipal elections, and then in 2007 became the first country in the world to use this technology in a national process; at that time only 3% of the votes were through this system.
It is worth mentioning that this modality is optional, it allows citizens to vote in advance and allows people to change their preference as many times as they wish, since the system will only recognize the last vote cast.
How does electronic voting work in Estonia?
The first thing is to have a computer with internet access and to have your ID-Kaart (Identity Card) or your Mobiil-ID (smartphone version of the Identity Card). In addition, you must make sure that the computer contains an anti-virus system and up-to-date identification software.
Subsequently, you must download the voting application from valimised.ee, run it and identify yourself with one of the two documents mentioned above.
With these steps, you can choose your favorite candidate and proceed to digitally sign. Once signed, the vote is encrypted and stored via the Internet on the I-Voting server. Voters can check if their choice was correctly saved through a smartphone application.
Finally, the encrypted vote can only be decrypted by the keys safeguarded by the National Electoral Committee.
As mentioned in previous notes, for the former National Digital Advisor of Estonia, Marten Kaevats, technological change is not as difficult as cultural change. In this sense, he mentions that it is complex for people to assimilate the digitization of these processes.
However, for the general elections in March this year, in the Baltic country more digital votes were cast than physical ballots for the first time since the inclusion of this modality. This shows a clear confidence of the population in the digital system. Confidence that is reaffirmed in the number of procedures that can be performed online and without the need to leave the house.
Undoubtedly, Estonia is an example to follow in terms of electronic democracy. A well elaborated system that generates security in the electorate, in addition to speeding up processes and reducing operational costs.