Summary
Methods to facilitate voting may include electronic voting.
Obligations
Criteria
Quotes
- [E]lectronic voting should be in conformity with Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation Rec(2004)11 on Legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting. In particular, it should be used only if it is safe, reliable, efficient, technically robust, open to independent verification and easily accessible to voters; the system must be transparent; unless channels of remote electronic voting are universally accessible, they shall be only an additional and optional means of voting.
- The legal framework should be flexible enough to allow for technological innovations to be applied to various aspects of balloting and counting, for example, utilizing electronic voting machines for recording and counting of ballots. Such wide flexibility might be regulated by requiring that certain types of approval be obtained before adopting them.
- [V]ery strict rules must apply to voting by proxy; the number of proxies a single voter may hold must be limited
- Electronic voting methods must be secure and reliable. They are secure if the system can withstand deliberate attack; they are reliable if they can function on their own, irrespective of any shortcomings in the hardware or software. Furthermore, the elector must be able to obtain confirmation of his or her vote and, if necessary, correct it without the secrecy of the ballot being in any way violated.
- [E]lectronic voting should be used only if it is safe and reliable; in particular, voters should be able to obtain a confirmation of their votes and to correct them, if necessary, respecting secret suffrage; the system must be transparent.
- Several countries are already using, or are preparing to introduce mechanical and electronic voting methods. The advantage of these methods becomes apparent when a number of elections are taking place at the same time, even though certain precautions are needed to minimise the risk of fraud, for example by enabling the voter to check his or her vote immediately after casting it. Clearly, with this kind of voting, it is important to ensure that ballot papers are designed in such a way as to avoid confusion. In order to facilitate verification and a recount of votes in the event of an appeal, it may also be provided that a machine could print votes onto ballot papers; these would be placed in a sealed container where they cannot be viewed. Whatever means used should ensure the confidentiality of voting.
- If NVT are used in polling stations, they should not be the exclusive method of voting, as less computer-literate voters may have problems operating NVT systems. In such cases, citizens should be provided with the option to use paper ballots if they wish.