Tallinn's Drive Against E-Elections Cost 78,000 Euros
The Tallinn municipal government has spent 77,584 euros of taxpayer money on criticizing electronic voting in the past three years, daily Eesti Päevaleht reported.
According to the daily, the calculations include a booklet saying today's Internet is not yet ready for e-elections and a second book, co-authored by US academics Barbara Simons and Douglas W. Jones, entitled “Broken Ballots”.
Simons, who is on the Board of Advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, was invited to speak in Tallinn with the costs covered by local taxpayers.
The costs in a nutshell:
* The two books – 25,000 euros each
* Simons's visit – 4,750 euros
* Other anti- e-election experts – 8,400 euros
* An anti- e-election advertising campaign – 10,000 euros
* A local municipality conference on the dangers of e-voting – 4,400 euros
Most of the events and books appeared shortly before the elections.
The Center Party, which has been ruling Tallinn since 2005, has feared far worse in e-elections than the other three major parties, with Yana Toom collecting the most e-votes for the party at the EP elections, 1,517 e-votes. She was 14th on the overall e-voting list, with former PM Andrus Ansip collecting 17,268 electronic votes.