Internet Voting in Estonia

At the Estonian School of Diplomacy we had a presentation on the Estonian experience in the Field of e-voting or electronic voting. For several reasons national experience of Estonia in the field of internet voting is one unique. One of this aspects is that Estonia is a small country but which has a widespread internet, there is Wi-Fi conection even in the forests. Internet technology sure was one of the premises for the further development of the inernet voting at a large scale in Estonia. 

      The estonian citizens are already used to the fact that they receive almost all their government services over the internet, but also to use the electronic identification system, to obtain more and more public services only by their ID card. 

        The national identity card with a digital signature truly makes Estonia unique in that all citizens can utilize Internet voting. Even if an individual does not have her own computer with a
reader, there are public computers with these readers that any Estonian can use.

        One of the other important safeguards are built into the Estonian electoral system that likely enhances the confidence of all key stakeholders in the integrity of ballots cast over the Internet.
The Internet mode of voting is optional, and is in fact one of three ways eligible for Estonian citizens.
         Data from the Estonian National Electoral Committee show there is a trend that demonstrates substantial increase of voters casting their ballots via internet. For instance, while in 2005 only 1,9% of voters voted online, this number escalated to 24,3% in 2011.