Internet Voting in Austria: History, Development, and Building Blocks for the Future

This dissertation aims to investigate the origins of Internet voting, analyze several deployments of Internet voting technology in Austria and identify - based on these accumulated experiences - building blocks that can be useful in decision-making on and planning of future uses of Internet voting technology within Austria and throughout the world. In line with the goals of this thesis, it will address the following research questions: - How did Internet voting originate? - What experiences were noted in the process of implementing Internet voting in Austria? - What building blocks can be identified for developing future Internet voting both inside and outside Austria? Internet voting is part of a transformational movement that applies information and communication technologies to daily business activities. It is only logical that elections are also considered for applying electronic (remote) communication technologies. While early efforts were driven by the belief that elections could make easy use of the Internet, it was shown that while the principles have to be interpreted and consequently applied in a different way, the same principles can still be derived for Internet voting, like integrity, secrecy, transparency, accountability and public confidence. The need to have forms of decision making in electronic networks has been identified in its beginnings and has received continuous attention throughout its development. At the height of the excitement about the possibilities of the Internet, countries raced to become the first to run a legally binding election using electronic voting systems. While several candidates emerged (e.g., Costa Rica, Bosnia Herzegovina, Germany, United States), Estonia was victorious in 2005. To date, Estonia is the only country that has introduced this form of voting without any preconditions or other limitations. In Austria, the intentions to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in elections concentrated on parliamentary affairs. Spurred by the efforts around student elections in Germany, Austria sought to conduct Internet voting in 2000. In the years thereafter, considerable progress was made at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), and this progress spearheaded the debate in the early 2000s. At the beginning in the years 2001-2003, technical solutions were sought to verify voter eligibility and maintain voter privacy. Later, more sophisticated algorithms were developed, and functionalities like quotas in election commissions were added. The Federation of Students' elections in 2009 were a remarkable event that demonstrated highly contentious political debate around the topic. This debate continued after the elections, which were held in May 2009 and suffered from the intense debate and protests and consequential organizational shortcomings. The experiences also showed that accurate legal regulations are needed to show interaction with the constitutional legal texts and to ensure accountability to a remote electronic voting channel through legal means. International standards were a first step, but regulations based on actual experience were needed to show how remote electronic voting channels could be realized and how to avoid problems identified in pilot implementations. This practical knowledge also shows that sophisticated algorithms are not always the key to success. Rather, several key implementations make use of very basic technical means to realize the tasks given by law. One should not forget about the voters. They not only need to use such systems, but they also need to understand the processes in order to build trust. The constitutional court ruling lifted the election and ruled that the respective ordinance was not in line with the requirements of the law. Hereby, the court established higher requirements resulting barriers for offering Internet voting channels in future elections. While the election administration system, which was a pre-requisite for the Internet voting system, was discontinued in the election thereafter, it returned in recent elections where postal voting was offered. On the basis of the aforementioned experiences, twelve building blocks were compiled discovered. These include design decisions, such as the following: the form of electronic voting, adaptations of the legal base, the technical means for identification and secrecy, observation, control functions for the electoral commission, evaluation processes, transparency functions, ballot sheet designs, controlling the organizational context as well as providing options for planning and implementation. This framework therefore facilitates and eases the generation of feasibility studies and other analyses and decision making ahead of using Internet voting in an election. With little adaption it can also be used for the use of other voting technologies. This work utilizes theoretical work and knowledge from adaptations of legal texts. These texts cover a wide range of topics, including methods for implementing identification and anonymity functions in remote electronic voting as well as testing and certifying systems that require transparent procedures. The findings also show that implementing remote an electronic voting system is a complex topic. It requires trust in the election administration; otherwise, suspicion will arise when more technology is introduced and implemented in an election process. Remote electronic voting is one of the most challenging information technology (IT) projects

Building a Multimodal, Trust-Based E-Voting System

This paper addresses the issue of voter identification and authentication, voter participation and trust in the electoral system. A multimodal/hybrid identification and authentication scheme is proposed which captures what a voter knows – PIN, what he has – smartcard and what he is – biometrics. Massive participation of voters in and out of the country of origin was enhanced through an integrated channel (kiosk and internet voting). A multi-trust voting system is built based on service oriented architecture. Microsoft Visual C#.Net, ASP.Net and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition components of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 was used to realize the Windows and Web-based solutions for the electronic voting system

Accuracy: The fundamental requirement for voting systems

There have been several attempts to develop a comprehensive account of the requirements for voting systems, particularly for public elections. Typically, these approaches identify a number of "high level" principals which are then refined either into more detailed statements or more formal constructs. Unfortunately, these approaches do not acknowledge the complexity and diversity of the contexts in which voting takes place. This paper takes a different approach by arguing that the only requirement for a voting system is that it is accurate. More detailed requirements can then be derived from this high level requirement for the particular context in which the system is implemented and deployed. A general, formal high level model for voting systems and their context is proposed. Several related definitions of accuracy for voting systems are then developed, illustrating how the term "accuracy" is in interpreted in different contexts. Finally, a context based requirement for voting system privacy is investigated as an example of deriving a subsidiary requirement from the high level requirement for accuracy

E-voting discourses in the UK and the Netherlands

A qualitative case study of the e-voting discourses in the UK and the Netherlands was performed based on the theory of strategic niche management. In both countries, eight e-voting experts were interviewed on their expectations, risk estimations, cooperation and learning experiences. The results show that differences in these variables can partly explain the variations in the embedding of e-voting in the two countries, from a qualitative point of view

Electronic governance, premise for implementation of electronic democracy

Living in a rapidly changing society, where information travels with great speed and its upgrade is essential, we decided to approach certain aspects of e-democracy, as a dynamic way of citizen participation, using new Information and Communications Technologies. The theme chosen for this research, Electronic governance, premise for implementation of electronic democracy, is a part of Electronic Administration field and identifies the meanings of implementing e-government and e-democracy, the necessity and effects of putting them into practice and the conditions to be fulfilled for the development of electronic services and fostering citizen participation in their use. E-governance as well as edemocracy have a clear contribution in making social progress, thanks to capitalize the most important irreversible resource, the time for achievement of the main administrative operations. The overall objective of the research aims to establish the relationship between governance and electronic democracy. From this perspective, this paper will contain: analyzing the importance of both e-governance and e-democracy, risks and benefits for each one, clarifying the need and implications underlying the implementation of electronic systems and explain the conditions to be met by citizens in order to benefit from these services. To achieve the objectives set, will be dominant the analyzing method of the social phenomena in their evolution. They will also combine harmoniously with practical examples in various member states of the European Union.e-governance, e-democracy

Back to practice, a decade of research in E-government

E-government is a multidisciplinary field of research based initially on empirical insights from practice. Efforts to theoretically found the field have opened perspectives from multiple research domains. The goal of this chapter is to review evolution of the e-government field from an institutional and an academic point of view. Our position is that e-government is an emergent multidisciplinary field of research in which focus on practice is a prominent characteristic. Each chapter of the book is then briefly presented and is positioned according to a vision of the e-government domain of research.E-government, Case study, E-administration, Public domain

An Evaluation and Certification Approach to Enable Voting Service Providers

In this paper we provide an evaluation and certification approach for Voting Service Providers (VSPs) which combines the evaluation of the electronic voting system and the operational environment for the first time. The VSP is a qualified institution which combines a secure voting system and a secure operational environment to provide secure remote electronic elections as a service [La08]. This centralized approach facilitates legal regulation and evaluation. So far, a legal regulation framework for VSPs has been developed which demands evaluation and certification of the VSP [Sc09a]. Therefore the VSP is required to provide a security concept in which it demonstrates satisfaction of the security requirements defined in the legal regulation. However neither the content of this security concept nor an adequate evaluation methodology has been specified so far. We therefore developed a security concept template and a comprehensive evaluation methodology for the VSP, which includes both the voting system and operational environment of VSPs. Our proposal incorporates existing evaluation methodologies to facilitate evaluation and certification. With this paper and the legal regulation a realistic approach to enable the VSP concept is accomplished

Internet voting in Estonia 2005–2019: Evidence from eleven elections

Internet voting is a highly contested topic in electoral studies. This article examines Internet voting in Estonia over 15 years and 11 nation-wide elections. It focuses on the following questions: How is Internet voting organized and used in Estonia? How have the Estonian Internet voting system and its usage evolved over time? What are the preconditions and consequences of large-scale deployment of Internet voting? The results suggest that the rapid uptake and burgeoning usage rates reflect the system's embeddedness in a highly developed digital state and society. Through continuous technological and legal innovation and development, Estonia has built an advanced Internet voting system that complies with normative standards for democratic elections and is widely trusted and used by the voters. Internet voting has not boosted turnout in a setting where voting was already easily accessible. Neither has it created digital divides: Internet voting in Estonia has diffused to the extent that socio-demographic characteristics no longer predict usage. This, combined with massive uptake, reduces incentives for political parties to politicize the novel voting mode

New Frontiers in the Relationship Between National and European Courts

The central question pervading this discussion is simply stated: whether and to what extent the European Court of Justice (“Court of Justice” or “Court”) (and the European institutions more generally) can count on the courts of the Member States to perform their judicial tasks in ways that are faithful to the ground rules of European Union (“EU”) law, be those rules substantive or procedural in character. Looking back over the past five decades, I am struck by the succession of different forms this question of national court “fidelity” to Community law, for lack of a better term, has taken. (The quoted term is meant to evoke precisely the general duty of loyal cooperation *526 imposed on Member States under Article 10 of the current EC Treaty.) I would suggest that we have witnessed essentially three generations of such “fidelity challenges.” In the early years, the fidelity challenge--or “infidelity risk,” if you prefer--ran something like this: Will national courts accept and conform to the Grundnorms of European constitutional law, that is to say, the principles of supremacy and direct effect expounded by the Court of Justice? Or, to take a second example, will national courts genuinely make preliminary references to the Court of Justice in accordance with the criteria for the making of preliminary references that have been established in the Treaty and in the case law of the Court? Considering the indispensable role that preliminary references and preliminary rulings play in the development of EU law, the importance of these ground rules should not be underestimated