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Voting navigators Web tools in the pre-election phase help citizens to get a better picture and increase voter turnout.
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The world’s largestE-Voting databaseE-Voting.CC provides free access and asks for your contribution.
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Securing free and fair electronic elections?The use of technology in the electoral process requires new methods of election observation.
2∧2009 ┅ Modern Democracy – The Electronic Voting and Participation Magazine ┅ ISSN 2072-7135
Securing free and fair
2∧2009 ┅ Modern Democracy – The Electronic Voting and Participation Magazine ISSN 2072-71352∧2009 ┅ Modern Democracy – The Electronic Voting and Participation Magazine ┅ ISSN 2072-7135
Robert Krimmer, Managing Director
2 Content • Editorial
Welcome to the second issue of Modern Democracy. With this is-sue, we continue the path we started and foster our mission to bring you the best stories and latest developments of Modern Democracy. First of all, the Modern Democ-racy team and I want to thank you for your overwhelming feed-back and return of our cards re-questing a subscription. We are very pleased with the response and remain fully committed to meeting your expectations. We are also proud of the fact that we now have 2,000 subscribers worldwide with membership growing all the time.Democracy is a dynamic process, especially modern democracy which is developing at an ex-tremely fast rate. In May 2009, Austria’s first electronic election took place. From our point of view it was a success, and under-pins the opportunities that lie in having additional voting chan-nels over the Internet.The recent local elections in Es-tonia showed a tremendous in-
Developing Modern Democracy
eDitorial22009
Dear reader,
2 editorial
3 ›4 Voting navigators – Thespreadofwebtools
andWeb2.0applicationsin
pre-electionphasesarerising.
5 Watching democracy Onlinevideosondemocracy
worthwatching.
6 State-of-the-art or solid state? TheEU´sMomentuminitiative
analysesEuropean
E-Participation.
6 Conference schedule 2010
7 the world‘s largest e-Voting database E-Voting.CCdeliversthefacts
andinformationontheuseof
electronicmeansofdemocracy.
8 ›9 World map of electronic voting Thismapshowstheglobal
proliferationanduseof
electronicvotingaswellitsstage
ofimplementationandapplication.
11 ›13 Cover Story: election observation Electionobservationis
securingthetransparency
andaccountabilityofelections.
14 ›16 Services
We continue to shape the future of democracy
crease in electronically cast votes; approximately ten percent of the population voted in this way.With the increasing use of elec-tronic and Internet voting, the reliability and accountability of the operating systems gains sig-nificant importance. Election ob-servation is one cornerstone in this roadmap. Consequently, in this issue, we decided to cover this hot topic very intensively. Having trust in electronic sys-tems to handle elections and more specifically count votes is a crucial fundament in establish-ing additional and successful electronic voting channels.Besides election observation, this current issue of Modern De-mocracy also contains an on-site experience report from one of our experts about the develop-ment and implementation of the German voting navigator, a spot-light on videos about electronic voting and democracy as well as a conference schedule and much more. This issue’s special is the world map of democracy, pre-senting the coverage and the stage-of-use of electronic voting at a glance.We hope you enjoy reading this issue of Modern Democracy, and as usual, we are looking forward to your feedback and comments.
Best regards, Robert Krimmer
The interface of the German Wahl-O-Mat
3Voting navigators
Voting navigators – facilitating e-Participation?The spread of web tools and the use of Web 2.0 applications in pre-election phases are rising. Voting navigators are just such an instrument and help citizens to get a better picture as well as increasing voter turnout.
Knowledge of politics, political parties and party platforms is crucial information for citizens’ decision-making on election days. To aid them in distinguish-ing the differences between each political party and their respec-tive manifestos, there are vari-ous vote navigation tools avail-able on the Internet.These modern tools establish new political communication and mobilization often described as “voting advice assistances”, “online voting helping tools”, ”vote matches”, “voting indica-tors” or “voting navigators (VN)“.
Quick information. A VN is mainly a web-based tool to provide an easy overview of parties, politi-cians and their programs (Krim-mer, Kripp 2009: 63). The idea is not to tell the voter how to vote,
but to offer quick access to infor-mation helping the user to dis-tinguish between the positions of the parties. In the following, the German “Wahl-O-Mat”1 is further dis-cussed based on the author’s on-site experience during the 2009 German parliamentary election. It was developed by the non-par-tisan Federal Agency for Civic Education (BPB: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung), and is based on the Stemwijzer VN from the Instituut Publiek en Politiek (IPP) in the Netherlands who originally invented the idea in 1985. The interactive web-based elec-tion assistant is an easy and im-mediately usable tool, created to inform citizens about elections and the programmatic differenc-es between the policies of the
contesting parties. The main goals are to increase voter turn-out and to fi nd new, innovative ways of motivating people to use their right to vote. The analysis of quantitative sur-veys revealed that according to his/her statement, approximate-ly eight percent of non-voters said that they now wanted to use their vote in the forthcoming election (Marschall 2005: 45).
How it works. The VN operates by presenting different statements related to party programs in a multi-stage process on which the participant reacts. A group of stakeholders from the society generated the statements, after which, all the political parties were given the opportunity to comment and justify the content of those statements. Through this stakeholder approach, the risk of misunderstandings and wrong assumptions could be minimized. In the process of voter naviga-tion, the fi rst step is to give your view on the statement by clicking
1 www.wahl-o-mat.de. Accessed on 2009-10-10. Also available in English.
Right: The public presentation of the German Voting NavigationLeft: The stakeholders and experts gathered after discussing the statements.
⇢
Voting navigators4
“agree”, “neutral”, “disagree” or “skip statement”. After respond-ing, voters have the opportunity to attach weight to the votes by selecting which policy area is-sues they consider to be of extra importance. The final step is se-lecting the desired parties. The result screen ranks in order of the participant’s choice: how closely his/her selections matched with parties or candi-dates, etc.
Conclusions. One conclusion for further use of similar tools is
that offering all the parties’ ar-guments in advance of the mul-ti-stage process facilitates deci-sion-making, because voters are able to make more thorough comparisons and can access further information via links of-fered in the tool. In 2005, the number of total page views from the start of campaigning to the end of the election was over 5,1 million. This figure increased to over 6,3 million in 2009. The example of the German Wahl-O-Mat under-pins the fact that new forms of
2 see the side box: “Making of statements“
Country Name URL
Austria Wahlkabine www.wahlkabine.at/
Belgium Kieskompas http://www.kieskompas.be/
Bulgaria Glasovoditel http://glasovoditel.eu/
Czech Republic Kohovolit CZ http://kohovolit.eu/eu used in the EP-Election 2009
Europe EU-Profiler http://www.euprofiler.eu/
Europe Vote Match Europe 2009 http://www.votematch.net/
Germany Wahl-O-Mat http://www.wahl-o-mat.de/
Hungary Választási Iránytü http://www.aceeeo.org/index.php/en/special-projects/european-parliamentary-elections-2009/voters-compass (used in the EP-Election in 2009)
Ireland Vote Match IE http://tascdemocracy.ie/
Israel Israel Election Compass http://israel.kieskompas.nl/ (currently offline)
Italy Cabine Electorale http://www.cabina-elettorale.it/
Netherlands StemWijzer http://www.stemwijzer.nl/
Netherlands Kieskompas http://tweedekamer.kieskompas.nl/
Poland Latarnik Wyborczy http://www.latarnikwyborczy.pl/
Portugal Bússola Eleitoral http://www.bussolaeleitoral.pt/
Romania Testeaza-ti votul! http://www.testvot.eu/
Slovakia Kohovolit SK http://kohovolit.eu/svk/
Switzerland Smartvote.ch http://www.smartvote.ch/index.php
United Kingdom Vote Match UK http://www.votematch.co.uk/
USA Electoral Compass USA http://www.electoralcompass.com//
USA WSYVF http://www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com/
E-Participation are not only in-creasing, but are very much in demand and have a significant impact on voter turnout on Elec-tion Day. In conclusion, the rel-evance of voter navigation and information tools facilitates and fosters new forms of mod-ern democracy. Author: Felix Wendt
Making of statementsAteamoftwenty-onepeoplecomprisingofpupils,
studentsandemployeesaswellasscientistsand
“experts”createdtheGermanVotingNavigator“Wahl-
O-Mat”usedattheParliamentaryElectionin2009.
Theeditorialworkwasbasedonpartyandelection
programs.Thestatementswerecreatedinafour-step
process.Thefirstpartwastheidentificationofdifferent
focalthemessuchasenvironmentalprotection,foreign
policyoreducationpolicyandmore.Insocalled“party
meetings”eachpoliticalparty’sviewwaselaborated
accordingly.
Thesecondstagewasdiscussingandcomparingthe
differentparties’statementsonthefocalthemeswith
theaimofidentifyingsimilarandcomparablecontentin
the“consultativecommittee”.
Thethirdstepforfindingthestatementswasthe
“plenumphase”withthegoalofcreating160statements
onwhichscientistsandjournalistscommentafterwards.
Thisinputwasincorporatedinthefinalstepofreducing
thestatementstoapproximately90;thefoundationfor
thefinaloutput.Parties’andvoters’representativebod-
iesdidnothaveanyfurtherimpactonthefinalselection.
Usingstatisticalevaluations,theeditorialteamselected
38statements,whichwouldbestdescribeanddifferen-
tiateeachparty.
References
Krimmer, Robert/ Kripp, Manuel (2009): Generic Tools and Policies for an Electronic Democracy. E-Voting.CC. Vienna
Marschall, Stefan (2005): Idee und Wirkung des Wahl-O-Mat. In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 51–52/2005. S. 41-46. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Bonn.
⇢
overview of different voting navigators
5Web watch
Online videos on democracy worth watching.
Watching democracy
Vote from anywhereOur third video with regard to vote promotion is from Austria, and promotes Austria’s fi rst E-Voting at the 2009 Student Un-ion Elections. The spot shows the convenience of distance voting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LULXiaV7h8
Search words: e-voting spot studi.gv.at
Homer votesThe Election Year of 2008 fasci-nated not only politically inter-ested voters, but also the produc-ers of the American animated sitcom “The Simpsons”. This sa-tirical parody of a middle class American family is demonstrated in this special Halloween episode by Homer Simpson’s attempt to vote. See if it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aBaX9GPSaQ
Search words: Simpson Vote Obama
Voting queueEverybody knows what a waiting line is and how it feels to cool one’s heels. This video shows the continuous waiting line in the early stage of Election Day for the US Election 2008. Would you wait to cast your vote?
http://vimeo.com/2127627
Search words: Early Voting Line Los Angeles
Diebold rewind
This video clip is an updated ver-sion for the US-Election 2008. A satirical video originally com-menting on the troubles of the 2004 US-Election, and specifi cally criticizing the Diebold Company and its voting machines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmsdSVQSXLg&NR=1
Search words: Florida Voting Machine Election 2008
to go, or not to go votingHere we have a special tip for you regarding “vote promoting vide-os”. At the beginning, Hollywood stars tell the audience not to go to the voting booths for the 2008 presidential elections. The vid-eo’s message then changes re-vealing the ridicule of the appeal. It is a good example of non-party encouragement via electronic media.
http://www.youtube.comwatch?v=0vtHwWReGU0
Search words: Five Friends
“Geh nicht wählen”The second one is a German in-terpretation of the “Five Friends” story done with German actors and anchormen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSPuIWhRf1Q
Search words: Geh nicht wählen
Authors: Felix Wendt, Daniel Botz
overview of different voting navigators
6 Analysis / Conference schedule
Conference Title Details Date Location Web Link
HICSS 2010 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, with track on E-Government 5.–8. 1. Kauai, Hawaii www.hicss.hawaii.edu
CYBERLAWS 2010 The First International Conference on Technical and Legal Aspects of the e-Society 10.–15. 2. St. Maarten,
Netherlands Antilles www.iaria.org/conferences2010/CYBERLAWS10.html
ICEGEG International Conference on eGovernment and eGovernance 11.–12. 3. Ankara, Turkey www.icegeg.info/index.html
e-society2010 IADIS International Conference e-Society 2010 18.–21. 3. Porto, Portugal www.iadisportal.org/
EDem10 4th International Conference on eDemocracy 6.–7. 5. Krems, Austria www.donau-uni.ac.at/en/department/gpa/telematik/index.php
ECEG 2010 10th European Conference on e-Government 17.–18. 6. Limerick, Irelandwww.academic-conferences.org/eceg/eceg2010/ eceg10http://www.academic-conferences.org/eceg/eceg2010/eceg10-home.htm
ICDGS 2010 International Conference on e-Democracy, e-Government and e-Society 28.–30. 6. Paris, France www.waset.org/conferences/2010/paris/
icdgs/index.php
EVOTE2010 4th International Conference on Electronic Voting and Participation 21.–24. 7. Bregenz, Austria www.e-voting.cc/2010
IADIS International Conference e-Democracy, Equity and Social Justice 26.–28. 7. Freiburg, Germany www.edemocracy-conf.org/
Conference schedule for 2010
State-of-the-art or solid state?The EU’s Momentum initiative analyses European E-Participation and benchmarks the European E-Participation world.
The EC funded “preparatory ac-tion on E-Participation”, is a flag-ship European initiative on har-nessing technology to strengthen citizenship and narrow the dem-ocratic deficit. But is it compre-hensive? Support action MOMENTUM (www.ep-momen-tum.eu), has revealed a number of interesting observations and op-portunities in a recent white pa-per.The overall analysis is positive. Projects are innovative and use modern approaches like game-based learning and debate visu-alisation. There are examples of mass citizen participation, and with 40 % of projects wholly open-source (65 % use open-source components), barriers to adoption are low.
Environmental topics seem to reveal the trend. To date, topics focusing on the environment seem to have prevailed, with few focusing on the economy. In light of the cur-rent economic conditions across Europe, is this the next big op-portunity to embrace? With the phenomenal growth of mobile In-ternet, there could also be a shift in what is otherwise a predomi-nately web-orientated practice. “M-Participation” is hampered by standardisation but increasingly liberated by reduced data and de-velopment costs. A full assessment will not be ready until next year – as such, the only conclusion so far is the comprehensiveness of E-Partici-pation itself. Author: Fraser Henderson
Fraser Henderson is an expert in the evaluation and use of technologies gained from six years’ experience at consumer electronic laboratories. He led the UK Local E-Democracy National Project trials, and was appointed as manager of the International Centre of Excellence for Local E-Democracy in 2006. Fraser is a partner of MOMENTUM, founding member of PEP-Net and director at ParticiTech.
7Short news
Can we tell you how many eligible electronic voters there were in the Estonian parliamentary elections of February 2007, or in any of the other 241 elections worldwide which used electronic means? Can we tell you which vendor was in charge and when the election took place? Can we possibly know all this? Yes, we can!
How it all began. In 2005, E-Voting.CC conducted a survey throughout 104 countries. At that time, elec-tronic voting was rarely used at national level with only 3.8%, but quite common at regional level with 36.5%. However, documen-tation on these elections has proven scarce. Consequently, an idea arose to use this precious data and docu-ment the efforts establishing electronic democracy. A web-based database was created fol-lowing the Wiki principle, so that anyone can edit, correct and up-date the data. The result is the world’s largest database on the uses of electronic voting. The aim is to provide important informa-tion such as dates, number of vot-ers, voter turnouts, system ven-dors, authentication and anonymization methods as well as the available voting channels
in the respective election. Cur-rently, this database contains 241 entries of elections, and the number is steadily growing.
Public access. The database is available at http://db.e-voting.cc. Every registered user can edit ex-isting data or provide additional information. A “how to” section provides instructions on how to edit and provide new informa-tion. The process is very simple and covers three steps:• Use the search fi eld and the
name of the election to check if it is already included
• If not, add a page and name it with the next free page number
• If the election is already in the database, use the edit button at the end of the site to edit the fi elds and enter your data
Glad to assist. There is no need for concern, as steps can be undone and we perform regular backups. We are thankful for any serious contributions. Should you need help with any of these steps, we will be glad to assist you. We can also carry out the editing if you feel uncomfortable with the edit-ing method. Simply send an E-Mail to offi [email protected]. Author: Daniel Botz
E-Voting.CC delivers the facts and information on the use of electronic means of democracy for election practioners, researchers and developers.
the world’s largest e-Voting database
The world’s most capacious E-voting database, db.e-voting.cc
The world’s most capacious E-voting database, db.e-voting.cc
The world’s most capacious E-voting database, db.e-voting.cc information on the
U.S. voting systemFollowinganumberofdifficultiesintheUSelec-
toralprocessinpreviousyears,theAmericanAs-
sociationfortheAdvancementofScience(AAAS)
hasrecentlylaunchedadatabasewithrelevant
empiricalandanalyticalresearchontheUS
VotingSystem.Byofferingabstracts,linksand
bibliographicinformationonexistingresearch,
theinitiatorsareaimingtoachieveagreater
understandingofthevotingprocessingeneral,
aswellasanintensificationofresearchonelec-
tionreformissues.Theweb-based,free-access
databasecurrentlyconsistsofabout500entries
onissuessuchasaccuracy,reliability,securityof
votingtechnologiesandelectionadministration.
http://votingtech.aaas.org/default.aspxw
enhancing development through iCt: aFriCoMM 2009EfficientandeffectivedeploymentofInforma-
tionandCommunicationTechnology(ICT)is
nowadaysconsideredakeyfactorineconomic
andsocialdevelopment.Basedonthisnotion,
MozambiquehostedthefirstInternationalICST
ConferenceonE-InfrastructureandE-Services
forDevelopingCountries.Theconference,held
from25thto27thNovember2009,focused
onissuesofE-Government,E-Governance,
E-InfrastructureandE-Businessinthecontextof
limitedresources.Bybringingtogetherstake-
holdersfrompolitics,academiaandeconom-
ics,theorganizersaimedtoachieveaprofound
discussionofrecentexperiencesandtrendsin
developingcountries.AFRICOMM2009was
organizedbytheInstituteforComputerScienc-
es,Social-InformaticsandTelecommunications
Engineering(ICST).
www.africomm.eu
PAN
CRI
NIC
HND
CUB
BHS
DOMHTIGTM
CHL
ARG
PRY
BOL
ECU
COLGUY
SUR
BRA
VEN
ATG
KNA
BRB
GRD
LCAVCT
TTO
DMA
PER
URY
MEX
NOR
ISL
SWE
AUTCHE LIE
DEU
NLDGBR
IRL
BEL
FRA
MCO
VAT
SMR
MLT
ESP
AND
LUX
POL
BLR
RUS
KAZ
KGZ
TJK
UZB
TKM
AFG
PAK
OMN
SAU
BHR
IRQ
SYR
CYP JOR
EGYLBYDZA
MAR
ESH
MRT
SEN
GIN
SLE
LBR
CIV
STP
TGOGHA
BFA
BEN
NGA
CMR
CAF
COD
AGO
NAM BWA
ZWE
ZMB MOZMWI
COM
SYC
TZA
BDI
RWA
UGA KEN
MDG
MUS
SWZ
ZAFLSO
COGGAB
GNQ
GNB
GMB
CPV
MLI
NER TCD
SDN ERI
ETH
SOM
ISR
YEM
NPL
BTN
BGD
MMR
LKA
MDV
THA
MYS
SGP
IDN PHL
PNG
TLS
SLB
VUT
MHL
FSM
PLW
NRU
AUT
NZL
BRN
KHM
LAO
KOR
JPN
PRK
VNM
IND
ARE
IRN
MNG
CHN
LTU
LVA
EST
DNK
CZE
SVK
HUN
ROU
BGR
SVN HRV
BIH SRB
MNE
MKD
ALB
GRCTUR
GEO
ARM AZE
UKR
MDA
ITA
PRT
FIN
USA
CAN
BLZ
SLV
FJI
WSM
TUV
TON
Special8
no E-Voting
Planning, trials, non-legally binding E-Voting
Successful legally binding electronic voting with voting machines
Successful legally binding internet voting
Successful legally binding internet and electronic voting
Stopped electronic voting with voting machines
PAN
CRI
NIC
HND
CUB
BHS
DOMHTIGTM
CHL
ARG
PRY
BOL
ECU
COLGUY
SUR
BRA
VEN
ATG
KNA
BRB
GRD
LCAVCT
TTO
DMA
PER
URY
MEX
NOR
ISL
SWE
AUTCHE LIE
DEU
NLDGBR
IRL
BEL
FRA
MCO
VAT
SMR
MLT
ESP
AND
LUX
POL
BLR
RUS
KAZ
KGZ
TJK
UZB
TKM
AFG
PAK
OMN
SAU
BHR
IRQ
SYR
CYP JOR
EGYLBYDZA
MAR
ESH
MRT
SEN
GIN
SLE
LBR
CIV
STP
TGOGHA
BFA
BEN
NGA
CMR
CAF
COD
AGO
NAM BWA
ZWE
ZMB MOZMWI
COM
SYC
TZA
BDI
RWA
UGA KEN
MDG
MUS
SWZ
ZAFLSO
COGGAB
GNQ
GNB
GMB
CPV
MLI
NER TCD
SDN ERI
ETH
SOM
ISR
YEM
NPL
BTN
BGD
MMR
LKA
MDV
THA
MYS
SGP
IDN PHL
PNG
TLS
SLB
VUT
MHL
FSM
PLW
NRU
AUT
NZL
BRN
KHM
LAO
KOR
JPN
PRK
VNM
IND
ARE
IRN
MNG
CHN
LTU
LVA
EST
DNK
CZE
SVK
HUN
ROU
BGR
SVN HRV
BIH SRB
MNE
MKD
ALB
GRCTUR
GEO
ARM AZE
UKR
MDA
ITA
PRT
FIN
USA
CAN
BLZ
SLV
FJI
WSM
TUV
TON
This map shows the global proliferation and use of electronic voting as well its stage of implementation and application. Download the map at http://e-voting.cc/files/e-voting-map-2010
World map of electronic voting
9Special
10 Short news10
R. Michael Alvarez and Thad E. Hall analyse and evaluate technologies in the electoral process.
reCoMMeNDeD
electronic elections
Since the election scandal in Florida in 2000, the USA has been involved in many discus-sions and disputes concerning E-Voting, voting machinery and its technology. Critics of E- Voting mention that these kinds of innovative technologies activate falsifi cations and cor-ruption. Proponents are com-mitted to the accuracy of vote count and are convinced of a greater political participation. Alvarez and Hall totally exam-ine the newer machinery and technologies promising mini-mal risk and working as effec-tive democratic instruments. Furthermore, they evaluate se-curity issues and examine state-of-the-art solutions in conjunc-
tion with voter turnout. They conclude that correctly evaluat-ed E-Voting systems and tech-nologies pose fewer issues than unfashionable election systems. Reading this book shows the broad experience of Alvarez and Hall. ”Electronic Elections“ is an important book for lawmakers, technologists and advocates in-terested in the implementation of E-Voting systems. The authors offer their answers and insights in a very objective and balanced way. The book gives a factual overview and en-courages the use of innovative election systems. Alvarez and Hall present a mod-ern and needful topic in election reform.
e-Voting workshop in SwitzerlandAsoneoftheleadingcountriesusingelectronic
votingsystems,SwitzerlandhostedthefirstSwissE-
VotingWorkshopwhichwasorganizedbyE.Voting-
cc.chandtookplaceincastleMünchenwilernear
MurtenthisJune.Morethan60participantsattended
presentationsontopicsliketrustandconfidence,
certifiedsecurity,liability,transparencyandthesuc-
cessorlackofsuccessof(remote)E-Voting.The
practicalcomponentoftheworkshopconsistedof
presentationsbythethreeSwisscantonsoperating
andusingremoteinternet-basedE-Votingsystems.
Representativesofthecantonsinformedaboutthe
meritsoftheirsystems.Theworkshoporganizer,
E-Voting-cc.ch,agroupofSwissacademics,has
establishedacompetencecenteronE-Votingasa
platformfordiscussionamongstbothsupporters
andscepticsofonlinevotingsystems.Thegroup
advocatesopen,transparentandsecureE-Voting
systemsforSwitzerland.Thepanel’stranscript(in
German)canbefoundontheCenter’sHomepage.
www.e-voting-cc.ch
internet voting for French expatriatesThisJune,Frenchcitizenslivingabroadcouldopt
tovoteelectronicallyfortheirrepresentativesinthe
“AssembléedesFrançaisdel’Etranger”(AFE).In
2006,thisglobalelectionwithcandidatesfromall
aroundtheworldwasthefirstlarge-scalepolitical
electioninFranceinwhichE-Votingwasallowed.
Outof340.000eligiblevoters,around69.380
people(20,44%)casttheirvote,9%ofthem
electronically.Internetvoting,thistimeconducted
usingScytl’sElectronicVotingplatform,wasathird
possiblevotingchannelinadditiontopersonal
andpostalvoting.Theassemblyconsistingof
183memberselectstwelverepresentativestothe
FrenchSenate;theirroleistorepresenttheinter-
estsofexpatriatestothegovernment.
www.assemblee-afe.fr
R. Michael Alvarez is professor of political science at the California Institute of Technology.
Thad E. Hall works as associate professor of political science and research fellow at the Institute of Public and International Affairs at the University of Utah.
Electronic Elections by Michael Alvarez and Thad Hall, Princeton Univ Press, 2008, New Jersey, ISBN: 0-691-12517-1
11Cover Story 11
Election observation is securing the transparency and accountability of elections, but electronic voting and the use of technology in the electoral process require new methods.
In recent decades, the number of democratic political systems worldwide has increased signifi -cantly, a phenomenon described by Samuel L. Huntington as “the third wave of democratization”. Today, approximately 75% of the world’s population is governed by a democratic order and multi-party elections are held in more
than 140 countries (Bjornlund 2004: 7). Elections are the key el-ement of democracy. Democratic elections must comply with cer-tain criteria and the two most mentioned are that they be free and fair (United Nations 2005). In democracies and states in tran-sition to democracy, the execu-tion of elections according to these criteria is the benchmark for the legitimacy of govern-ments and authorities. There-fore, elections are under special scrutiny and of particular impor-tance in securing transparency of government and freedom for the population. One element of securing transparency is media
publication of information re-garding fraud and malfunctions in the electoral process. The sec-ond element is international and domestic observation by in-dependent organisations. Ac-cording to the United Nations, election observation is defi ned as the assessment of election processes in accordance with international principles for gen-uine democratic elections and domestic law (UN 2005: 1).
Not a tool for democratization. Elec-tion monitoring was initially used as a tool to assist develop-ing and transitional countries in establishing democratic proc-
Election observation cannot be seen as a tool for democ-ratization, but rather as a tool for democracy promotion and democracy assistance.
⇢
Securing free and fair electronic elections?
12 Cover Story
esses, in particular, elections. Since the 1990s, the execution of democratic elections and their observation has often been a pre-condition for receiving develop-ment aid and funding from Euro-pean and American donors (Bjornlund 2004: 11). For this rea-son, election observation cannot be seen as a tool for democratiza-tion, but rather as a tool for de-mocracy promotion and democ-racy assistance.
A brief history of election observation. The history of election observa-tion began in the 1980s with elec-tions in Zimbabwe, El Salvador and Namibia, and continued in the 1990s in Cambodia and East Timor (Bjornlund 2004: 38f.). The political transition of Central Eastern European countries in the 1990s resulted in various elections and confi rmed the practice of election observation in sovereign countries by inter-national and multilateral organi-sations. An important event for election observation was the in-cidents in Florida in the 2000 American presidential election. According to Bjornlund (2004: 4), this election would have been considered fl awed under inter-national standards. Consequent-ly, election observation today is not only a matter of democracy and assistance for transitional
and developing countries, but also for well-established democ-racies. For the fi rst time in his-tory, the United Nations has for-mulated international standards with the Declaration of Princi-ples for International Election Observation and the Code of Conduct for Election Observa-tion (United Nations 2005). This is based on an initiative of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division (UNEAD).
The effect of technology. Election ob-servation can contribute to pub-lic confi dence and the transpar-ency and accountability of elections, but does not automati-cally result in democracy and fair elections. The increasing use of technology is also affecting elections. Today, technology al-ready plays a crucial role in gen-erating election registers and ballots as well as calculating re-sults. This “technologizing” of elections requires new forms of election observation because most of the processes take place behind the scenes and are in-creasingly imperceptible and in-comprehensible for ordinary cit-izens. Election observation must bridge this gap. The role of elec-tion observers is changing. They are becoming the representa-tives of the citizens, and conse-quently their responsibility is in-creasing tremendously. Four aspects. There are four impor-tant aspects of election observa-
tion in electronic elections: the education and training of ob-servers, the certifi cation of tech-nologies, the design and usabil-ity of election technologies, and vote verifi cation. First of all, the education and training of observers in the in-formation and communication technologies used in elections is of crucial importance. Ob-servers need the technical knowledge to understand and analyse technical processes and machines. The second as-pect of election observation in the digital age is the certifi ca-tion of used technologies in ad-vance of the election. This is comparable to the pre-check of seals on ballot boxes. Possible solutions could be the integra-tion of observers in the certifi -cation processes of used tech-nologies and international standards for the certifi cation of election technologies. Third-ly, electronic voting requires in-dependent supervision of the usability of the used technolo-gies. With electronic voting, the design of the ballot and the us-ability of the voting system as a whole become increasingly important because design and usability infl uence voting be-haviour as does accessibility for handicapped people. Final-ly, the transparency and ac-countability of electronic vot-ing is strongly connected to the comprehensibility of the vote counting processes. How do cit-izens know that their vote has been counted? One solution could be a verifi cation code which allows citizens or elec-tion observers to follow one vote through the system with-out the need to open it.
New forms required. In conclusion, technology is not the death of free and fair elections, but new forms of election observation are required to secure transpar-ency and accountability. Author: Manuel J. Kripp
The roles of election observers are changing.
⇢
The observation of electronic elections faces various challenges.
International experts will discuss theory and practices of observation of E-Voting at the next EVOTE2010 from July 21st to 24th
13Short news 13
In May 2009, and for the first time in any Austrian elections, voters in the Austrian Federation of Students’ elections were able to cast their votes via the Inter-net. Invited by the Austrian Ministry for European and International Affairs, international experts from France, Norway, England, Estonia, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the United States gathered in Vienna to ob-serve and monitor the first two days of Internet voting. The ex-perts were introduced to the Austrian Internet voting technol-ogies and processes, public In-ternet polling stations and a demo version of the running sys-
In May, experts from eight countries gather in Vienna to observe and monitor the first days of the Internet voting of the Austrian Federation of Students
observing a virtual vote
tem. In addition, experts from the Austrian project team, from the software supplier and the federal computing centre as well as members of the election com-mission presented and discussed their achievements, challenges and future developments of elec-tronic voting in Austria and in-ternationally.Presentations from various elec-tion experts regarding experi-ences with electronic voting, with voting machines or via the Internet conducted the work-shop program. A joint panel and dinner reception, courtesy of Austrian Federal Computing closed the election observation workshop. Author: Manuel J. Kripp
leading european weblog on e-ParticipationPEP-NET,thePanEuropeanE-Participation
Network,waslaunchedinMay2008aimingto
linkstakeholdersandexpertsinE-Democracy
throughoutEurope.Itoffersroomfortheexchange
ofexperiencesandadvancementofideas,and
facilitatesnetworkingbyitsmembersfromthe
fieldsofacademia,administration,consultingand
thegeneralpublic.UsingtoolssuchasTwitter,Fa-
cebookandYouTube,PEP-NETseekstoincrease
theavailabilityofICT-basedsolutionsforpublic
participation.Theweblogpep-net.euworksasa
forumforitsmembersandtheinterestedpublic.
PEP-NETmembersarealsoplanningtoestablish
PEP-NETasanintegralcomponentofrelatedcon-
ferences.ThenetworkiscoordinatedbyTuTechIn-
novationandhasbeenfoundedincooperationwith
E-Voting.CC,theDanishTechnologicalInstitute,the
ResearchAcademicComputerTechnologyInstitute
andothers.Oneoutcomeisthe“Pep-NetConfer-
enceSeries“,whichaimstoprovideanumbrellafor
conferencesonE-VotingandE-Participation.
http://pep-net.eu
Prospect of e-Voting in russian electionsAccordingtotheChairmanofRussia’sCentral
ElectionCommission,WladimirKurow,thecasting
ofelectronicvotesmaybepossibleinthecountry’s
nextlegallybindingelections;citizensabroadare
expectedtobethemainbeneficiaries.Inrecent
years,Russiahasgainedexperienceintheuseof
informationtechnologythroughtheelectioninfor-
mationsystem“Vybory”,especiallyinthepre-and
post-electionphaseThefinaldecisionontheintro-
ductionofInternetvotingwillhowever,bemadeby
theStateDuma;theRussianParliament.
Central Election Commission of the Russian
Federation, http://www.cikrf.ru/eng/
Company URL Country Email More information
Cybernetica AS www.cyber.ee Estonia [email protected]
21c Consultancy Ltd* www.21cconsultancy.com United Kingdom [email protected]
Delib Ltd* www.delib.co.uk United Kingdom [email protected]
Diebold Incorporated www.diebold.com United States
Dominion Voting Systems Corporation
www.dominionvoting.com
Canada [email protected]
DRS Data Services Limited www.drs.co.uk United Kingdom
Election Trust LLC.* www.electiontrust.com United States [email protected]
Electoral Reform Society www.electoral-reform.org.uk
United Kingdom [email protected]
ES&S Europe,Middle East and Africa
www.essvote.com United Kingdom [email protected]
EveryoneCounts.com www.everyonecounts.com
United States [email protected]
Experian Information Enterprises www.experian.com France [email protected]
Geneva Solutions SA www.gs-sa.ch Switzerland [email protected] GENEVA is the only private company that has qualified four times for the “Capture the Flag” white hat competition held annually in Las Vegas. The twice vice-champion offers you a fresh glance to securing your data and networks. We provide a long and worldwide experience, out-of-the-box thinking and a holistic approach. We are bound neither by legacy theories nor by tradition or commercial ties with some vendors.
Gov2u* www.gov2u.org Greece [email protected]
Herodot Consulting & Software KG www.herodot.at Austria [email protected]
Icele* www.icele.org United Kingdom [email protected]
iMeta Technologies Limited www.mi-voice.com United Kingdom [email protected] Mi-Voice specializes in the delivery of secure, multi-channel electronic voting and consultation solutions. We work with established best-of-breed partners within the electoral marketplace to deliver a complete election and consultation service. Developing applications for the Education, Government and Commercial markets, we believe that our technology makes it easier for people to participate in a democratic process, increases turnout, and aids administrative cost savings without compromising integrity.
Indra Sistemas, S.A. www.indra.es Spain [email protected]
Ingenieursgesellschaft Entera* www.entera.de Germany [email protected]
Issy Media* www.issy.com France [email protected]
Logica plc. www.logica.com United Kingdom
Micromata GmbH www.micromata.com Germany [email protected] Micromata has been in business since 1996, and is managed by Kai Reinhard (graduate in physics) and Thomas Landgraf (graduate in electronic engineering). Our core business has always been the development of customized software which optimizes all operational procedures within companies. While engineering high-level applications, we emphasize maximum standards of quality and security.
Nedap, N.V. Nederlandsche Apparatenfabriek
www.nedap.nl Netherlands [email protected]
14 Market overview
Market overview on Modern Democracy tools
Company URL Country Email More information
Openvoting.org www.openevoting.org Austria [email protected] openevoting.org, a non-profit organization, started with an initiative for a fully transparent e-voting system. The aim of openevoting.org is to provide an open-source code base for developers as well as verification tools for end users. Our newly-developed voting protocol ensures that only the final published results will be used to prove the correctness of an election. In this case, expensive certified server equipment is not necessary; above all, everyone can be an observer!
Opt2Vote Ltd. www.opt2vote.com Northern Ireland [email protected]
Pnyka www.pnyka.cti.gr Greece [email protected] Pnyka is an internet-based electronic voting system which has been developed within the scope of a research program of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology of the Greek Ministry of Development. The development team won first prize in the E-Voting Competition 2008, which was held in Bregenz in August 2008. Eight systems were evaluated by a jury of E-Voting experts with three making it into the final. The first prize was awarded to Pnyka, due to good usability, high security levels and best compliance with submission criteria. The system can be used freely; the source code is laid open and can be altered for further development.
Public-i Group Ltd* www.public-i.info United Kingdom [email protected]
Research Academic Computer Technology Institute*
www.cti.gr Greece [email protected]
Safevote, Inc. safevote.com United States [email protected]
Scytl Secure Electronic Voting www.scytl.com Spain [email protected] Scytl, worldwide leader in secure electoral solutions, specialize in application-level cryptography and has over 14 years of experience in research & development. Scytl’s technology has already been implemented in numerous electoral modernization projects worldwide, such as the State of Florida (US), the Republic of the Philippines, the United Kingdom, the Australian State of Victoria, the Parliament of Finland, the Swiss Canton of Neuchâtel, the Spanish City of Madrid, the Catalan Government and many others.
Sequoia Voting Systems www.sequoiavote.com United States [email protected]
Singularity Solutions Inc. emailelection.com United States [email protected]
Smartmatic www.smartmatic.com United States
Software Improvements Pty. Ltd. www.softimp.com.au Australia [email protected]
Sztaki Voting and Survey System wwwold.sztaki.hu Hungary [email protected]
True Ballot www.trueballot.com United States [email protected]
T-Systems Enterprise Services GmbH
www.t-systems.com Germany [email protected]
TuTech Innovation GmbH* www.tutech.de Germany [email protected]
Unisys www.unisys.com Germany
Votenet Soultions www.votenet.com United States [email protected]
Zebralog cross media dialogues* www.zebralog.de Germany [email protected]
*Entries/companies with a star are members of the Pan-European E-Participation network PEP-Net. More information: http://pep-net.eu
Author: Daniel Botz
15
Miss your company or want to place your logo? Contact us at [email protected]
Market overview
Imprint: Modern Democracy – The Electronic Voting and Participation Magazine / Editor: E-Voting.CC gGmbH, Competence Center for Electronic Voting and Participation, Pyrkergasse 33/1/2, A-1190 Vienna, Tel: +43-1-319 39 50, Fax: +43-1-319 39 55, E-Mail: offi [email protected], Website: www.e-voting.cc / Commercial Register: 304928z, VAT: ATU64053446, Bank Austria: 520 755 011 87, BLZ: 12000, Bank Address: Am Hof 2, A-1010 Vienna, IBAN: AT691200052075501187, BIC: BKAUATWW / Editorial Staff: Daniel Botz, Robert Krimmer, Manuel Kripp, Katharina Stöbich, Felix Wendt, Konrad Wieland / Layout: EGGER & LERCH GmbH, Kirchengasse 1, A-1070 Vienna / Printing: Leukauf, A-1220 Vienna / ISSN 2072-7135
Outlook for the next issue of Modern Democracy
Cover story: e-Democracy in developing countriesIf you are interested in publishing or writing a story for the next issue of Modern Democracy, please contact us at [email protected]
Our world-renowned conference goes into its fourth round! EVOTE2010 will be held from July 21st to 24th 2010 in the marvellous Castle Hofen in Lochau near Bregenz, Austria. The call for papers has been issued. Keep the following dates in mind:
Draft of the full paper: February 12th, 2010Review deadline: March 12th, 2010Notifi cation of acceptance: April 5th, 2010Receipt of the fi nal paper: May 14th, 2010
For more information visit: http://www.e-voting.cc/2010/
eVote2010 Final call for papers:
FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
The 4th International Conference on
electronicvoting
2010EVOTE2010July 21st to 24th 2010Bregenz, Austria
This conference is the international meeting point for e-votingexperts from all over the world to hold an interdisciplinaryand open discussion of all issues electronic voting involves.In 2004, 2006 and 2008 more than 250 experts from 26 countriesdiscussed electronic voting.
Travel Information
Schloss Hofen, the prominent red Renaissance castle of the Earlsof Raitenau, has been an international center for Science andContinuing Education since 1981. It is situated at the shore of LakeConstance in Lochau, which is right next to the region’s capitalBregenz.
Castle HofenCenter for Science and Continuing EducationHoferstraße 26, A-6911 Lochau/BregenzPhone: +43 5574 4930-0 Fax: [email protected] / www.schlosshofen.at
} By CarFrom Austria / Switzerland: Take the highway A14 in the directionof Germany through the Pfänder tunnel and exit at Lochau-Hörbranz.Drive left in the direction of Lochau, after 800 m turn left at the OMVgas station to Eichenberg and arrive at Castle Hofen after 1km.From Germany: Take the highway E43 and take the exit after theformer customs control “Hörbranz Zollamt”. From there proceedas described above. If you use a route guidance system, please usethe address quoted above.
} By Public TransportTake the train to Bregenz and then take a taxi. Please do not go toLochau as there are no taxis available.
} By PlaneBregenz does not have an own airport, still there are internationalairports nearby: Friedrichshafen – FDH (DE), Zurich Airport – ZRH(CH) and Airport Altenrhein – ACH (CH).Airport Altenrhein is connected to Vienna by Austrian/StarAlliance.Use the free Austrian bus to Bregenz train station, then take a taxi.
H. Nurmi, FinlandW. Polasek, SwitzerlandM. Remmert, FranceJ. Reniu, SpainD. Rios, SpainF. Ruggeri, ItalyP. Ryan, LuxembourgP. Ryan, United KingdomK. Sako, JapanB. Schoenmakers, NetherlandsR. Stein, AustriaD. Tokaji, USAA. Trechsel, ItalyM. Volkamer, GermanyP. Vora, USAD. Wallach, USAG. Wenda, Austria
International Programme Committee
M. Alvarez, USAF. Bannister, IrelandJ. Barrat, SpainJ. Benaloh, USAN. Braun, SwitzerlandT. Buchsbaum, AustriaC. Enguehard, FranceS. French, United KingdomT. Grechenig, AustriaR. Grimm, GermanyT. Hall, USAC. Imamura, BrazilS. Kim, South KoreaN. Kersting, South AfricaR. Krimmer, AustriaM. Leyenaar, NetherlandsL. Monnoyer-Smith, France
General Enquiries
E-Voting.CC Gesellschaft für elektronische Wahlenund Partizipation gemeinnützige GmbHPyrkergasse 33/1/2, A-1190 Vienna, AustriaPhone: +43 1 3193950, Fax: +43 1 3193955E-Mail: [email protected] Web: www.e-voting.cc/2010
Commercial Register: 304928z VAT: ATU64053446
