Voting in Elections Worldwide

Electronic Voting in State Institutions Electronic voting is increasingly becoming the method of decision-making in this digital age in which we live. Whether it's the election of government representatives in individual states or the voting of union members or members of a corporation, electronic voting in elections is the choice for the future.

Voting in Elections Worldwide

Electronic Voting in State Institutions Electronic voting is increasingly becoming the method of decision-making in this digital age in which we live. Whether it's the election of government representatives in individual states or the voting of union members or members of a corporation, electronic voting in elections is the choice for the future.

Many countries around the world use electronic voting in elections, both at the local and national levels, and many are considering its implementation.

In the United States, voters cast their votes using devices at polling stations that collect their votes by pressing a button or making selections on a touchscreen. However, controversies arise from the fact that different U.S. states entrust the task of vote counting to different private companies specializing in this area.

Belgium introduced an electronic voting system as far back as 1999. It involves voting using magnetic cards and electronically marking ballot papers. Their trend is to introduce more sophisticated systems, likely for online voting.

In Brazil, elections are exclusively conducted electronically using voting devices at polling stations, which have been enhanced with a biometric voter verification system (fingerprint).

At the national level, India uses electronic voting machines at polling stations, and this has been highly successful with the complete trust of its citizens. The use of paper ballots has been completely phased out.

In Venezuela, the scenario was somewhat different, and there was initially a lack of trust among citizens in the impartiality of the electronic voting system introduced at polling stations. However, with further development, Venezuela, along with India, Brazil, and Bhutan, became one of the four countries that fully rely on electronic voting.

Many other countries have had various intentions and attempts to introduce this method of voting, either through specialized electronic devices or over the internet.

However, so far, only Estonia has achieved success in internet voting. It is the first country to introduce online voting as a means of electing its representatives. Estonia remains the only country that fully enables internet voting. This form of voting was introduced in local elections in 2005, and citizens and institutions have supported it from the very beginning. Even massive hacker attacks shortly before the 2007 elections did not diminish trust in the system. Estonian voters only need a personal or portable computer connected to the internet and a personal identification card or an electronic ID card with the appropriate certificates and PIN. Besides being a unique example worldwide, Estonia is also a good candidate for comparison with Croatia due to its size and the fact that, like Croatia, it introduced personal identification cards with electronic chips and developed a system similar to the e-Citizen system, which serves as the basis for internet voting.

So, where do we stand? Recommendations and interest in introducing electronic voting exist both from European institutions and from our State Electoral Commission and GONG (Civic Oversight of Government and Institutions). It would be interesting to conduct a survey on the opinions of citizens.