As hundreds of thousands of Estonians braced to put pencil to ballot paper in a general election, a swathe of the Baltic state’s population instead opted for a mouseclick.
The nation of 1.3 million pioneered e-voting in 2005 and the system’s popularity has spiralled ever since.
Estonians who didn’t want to turn out in person on March 6 had the right to vote online via a secure system between February 24 and March 2, with their confidential ballots counted on election day just like the paper equivalents.
By 9.45 p.m. Tuesday over 110,000 people – 12 per cent of the electorate – had cast e-ballots, the Estonian Electoral Commission said.
“I voted electronically for the first time. I did it via computer because I was out of Estonia on election day,” electronics shop employee Rene Liira, 34, told AFP in the capital Tallinn.
“I believe the system’s secure enough. Nothing related to computers is 100 per cent secure. But it’s not a given that other voting systems are always fully secure either,” he added.
After five decades of Soviet rule ended in 1991, Estonia opted to go hi-tech as fast as possible. It gained the nickname “E-stonia” as it outstripped most other members of the European Union, which it joined in 2004.
“E-voting gives voters another option to do their civic duty. It’s very convenient for people who are very busy, travel a lot or ‘live’ in cyber-space,” Heiki Sibul, head of the national electoral commission, told AFP.
To fight fraud, e-voting system relies on encoded ID cards – with which Estonians can also access virtually all public services at a special state portal – as well as special software and a secure website.
But technical concerns remain.
On Tuesday, the daily newspaper Postimees underlined that the names of some candidates were not immediately visible.
“That might happen when a 600x800 resolution screen is used. It mainly concerns independent candidates who are at the end of the list,” Taavi Martens, one of the creators of the system, told Postimees. “We can’t change anything at this time, but we will post information on the website.”
Cyber-democracy also has political critics.
The left-leaning opposition Centre Party, which has been snapping at the heels of the ruling centre-right in opinion surveys, has complained that e-voting takes place before polling and campaigning blackout comes into force on election day.
“The Centre Party wants a ban on opinion polls during e-voting,” Priit Toobal, its secretary general, told reporters. “When electronic voting is already under way, publishing opinion polls can affect voting results. For example, a fresh poll indicating a fall in support for the Reform Party could mobilise their supporters,” he added, referring to the movement of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip.
Centre’s core voters are often older and working class, and tend to prefer paper ballots.
“It just feels real and right when you do it the old way and I trust it more, even though my son voted electronically,” said Tatjana, 58, who works at Tallinn fish market.
Estonia’s first e-vote was in the 2005 local elections. More than 9,000 people went online for that ballot.
By the 2007 general election, 30,000 people chose it. In Estonia’s 2009 European parliament vote, the number was 58,000, and in last October’s local elections, 104,000 people.
But pencil, paper and voting booth still have an emotional pull.
“I’ve voted electronically since we introduced the system in 2005. But this time I’ve decided to vote the old-fashioned way because my daughter is grown-up now and she asked me to join her at the polling station when she casts her first ever ballot,” said Mr Sibul.