Via the BBC: Estonians head to the ballot box
Estonian voters head to the polls on Sunday to vote in the 11th parliamentary elections since the country gained independence in 1991.For the first time in a parliamentary election anywhere in the world, most people have been able to vote online. Some 30,000 out of 900,000 eligible voters chose this option, though e-ballots had to be cast at least three days ahead of the election day.
The usage of internet voting is interesting, although I am skeptical, despite my general pro-tech attitudes. If we have problems with electronic voting machines that are physically at polling places, how many more potential problems exist for something like this?
And then there’s this twist:
But those who have already cast an e-ballot can still turn up to cast a paper one if they have changed their mind in the interim, or are worried about the security of the online vote – and their paper ballot will invalidate the computer one.
The system relies on specific technology and the small population in question:
The groundbreaking online election system takes advantage of the fact that nearly 90% of Estonians carry a computer-readable identity card – which they were able to use to log in to the secure online voting website.E-voting systems, in which people use online machines in polling stations or register to get an e-vote password, have been tried on a smaller scale in many European countries, including in some local elections in the UK and Ireland.
I have a soft-spot for Estonia. One of my undergraduate professors, Rein Taagepera, was Estonian (and this was during the Cold War, when his homeland was under the iron thumb of the Soviets). We was (and remains such, I’m sure( a dear man who influenced my career more than I realized at the time. Indeed, after Estonia gained its independence from the USSR, Taagepera served in their constitutional assembly and even ran for President of Estonia and has otherwise been very much involved in Estonia’s political development.
In general, I find the historical move of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), tiny as they were, to be noteworthy, as it was are David-and-Goliath as you can get.
Technorati Tags: Estonia, Elections
March 4th, 2024 at 5:50 pm
[...] (My previous post on the subject can be found here). [...]
March 4th, 2024 at 6:04 pm
Estonian election
With all that Purim merry-making, there just has not been time for a post on the Estonian parliamentary election, today.
So go see what Josep Colomer has to say about Estonian democracy and the role of my graduate-school mentor, Rein Taagepera, in it…