Contribution by A. Driza Maurer published in Cuadernos de Derecho Electoral, Número 2 (2024) / 239-254

Together with Justin Nettmann and Rafik Grigoryan we presented this paper to the 2021 E-Vote-ID Conference. We were honoured to receive the Best Paper Award in the Elections and Practical Experiences track.

The paper was prepared with permission from UNDP following the Feasibility Study on Innovative Technologies for Electoral Processes in Armenia, produced in the framework of “Electoral Support Project in Armenia” funded by the Government of Japan and implemented by UNDP. The authors of this paper are the main authors of the feasibility study. The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of UNDP.

Here you find the paper and here is the link to the proceedings of the E-Vote-ID conference.

A few weeks ago I talked to electis.io about i-voting development in Switzerland. Thanks to Gilles and Franck for the interesting questions. Here is the link to the interview on YouTube

New Council of Europe publication

Digital solutions are already used in elections and increasingly discussed. Their security, i.e. compliance with constitutional principles even in the presence of attacks or system failures, has attracted attention in the recent years as it impacts the integrity of elections. Under article 3 of the additional Protocol to the ECHR the legislator has the important burden to introduce regulations that ensure that only digital solutions which comply with constitutional principles can be used in elections. This is not an easy task as the field is still experimental. The two studies presented here raise legal questions about the use of some digital technologies in the electoral cycle. They draw upon past experiences in several countries and suggest possible approaches. A checklist to the attention of the legislator is to be found at the end of the first study (conclusions).

The two studies were prepared to the attention of the Council of Europe. The first one (Developing a regulatory framework) was conducted upon request of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine with the support of the Council of Europe project on “Supporting the transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine”. The second study (Overview of digital technologies used in the electoral cycle) was initially presented to the European Committee on Democracy and Governance (CDDG) of the Council of Europe who has been given the specific task of developing standards on the use of new technologies in the different stages of the electoral process.

The Study is available in English and in Ukrainian

Since our last post, internet voting in Switzerland has gone through some important developments. A draft federal law was put into consultation and an innovative transparency exercise took place at the beginning of 2019 : the publication of the source code of the Swiss Post/Scytl internet voting system and a public intrusion test on this very same system (from 25 Feb. to 24 March 2019).

The ultimate aim of these developments was to achieve the transformation of e-voting into an ordinary voting channel and to validate, after public examination, the suitability of the Swiss Post/Scytl internet voting system to offer internet voting for up to 100% of the electorate.

It is to be highlighted that this was the best example worldwide so far of achieving a high degree of transparency of an internet voting system used in elections. The Federal Chancellery and the Swiss Cantons have thus set a high transparency standard.

The results however were not the expected ones. Yet, the exercise yielded valuable insights into issues that need to be overcome before internet voting could realistically become an ordinary voting channel.

In a paper presented at E-Vot-ID 2019, I discuss some of these issues:

Other papers presented at E-Vot-ID 2019, including two interesting contributions on Swiss postal voting and on Swiss electors’ perception of e-voting, can be found here (2019 proceedings).