Mark's Notebook

Estonians Break Ground, Vote Online

Washington Post

By Jari Tanner, The Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia -- This tiny former Soviet republic nicknamed "e-Stonia" because of its tech-savvy population is breaking new ground in digital democracy. This week, Estonia became the first country in the world to hold an election allowing voters nationwide to cast ballots over the Internet.

Thousands of people voted online in Democratic primaries in Arizona in 2000 and Michigan in 2004. The city of Geneva, Switzerland, has held several online referendums, the first in January 2003. But Estonia is the first to extend it to voters nationwide, experts said.

Estonia has the most advanced information infrastructure of any formerly communist eastern European state. It gave the Linux-based voting system a trial run in January, when about 600 people voted online in a referendum in the capital, Tallinn. The plan is to allow online voting in the next parliamentary elections in 2007.

To cast an online ballot, voters need a special ID card, a $24 device that reads the card and a computer with Internet access. Some 80 percent of Estonian voters have the ID cards, which have been used since 2002 for online access to bank accounts and tax records.

In the United States, the Pentagon canceled an Internet voting plan for military and overseas citizens in 2004 because of security concerns. Plans for large-scale voting in Britain have also been dropped.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101400737.
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Last updated Monday 3 August 2009