E-Voting Tests Wind Up, One Bug Fixed
Just under 2,000 people took part in the e-voting test run last week, with officials saying that casting a vote should take less than a minute.
Despite its reputation as an Estonian success story, e-voting has been a controversial issue that has been challenged by political opposition, claims of security vulnerabilities and an ensuing Supreme Court case.
This year's innovation is a verification system, albeit one that only works on Android operating systems.
As Taavi Martens, head of the e-voting committee, said, the new system checks that "the computer you voted on acted correctly. On some Android devices it didn't want to work, but the bug has now been fixed."
Asked how long the e-voting process should take for a person, he said 45 seconds.
"Literally, too. The app is a megabyte-sized executable. It doesn't have to be installed separately. You download it and run it. The prerequisite is that you have the basic ID card software installed. It should be a fast and painless process," Martens told uudised.err.ee.
Election Day is on October 20, and the period of e-voting will be from October 10 to 16.
Those wishing to vote online, as has been possible in Estonia since 2005, must download the voting software and log in with their national ID card or mobile ID.
In the 2011 general elections, 24.3 percent of the votes cast were done so by e-vote, according to the National Electoral Committee.