TRAMES 3, 6, 2002

E-VOTING IN ESTONIA

Wolfgang Drechsler (a) and Ülle Madise (b)

(a) University of Tartu
(b) Estonian Parliament (Staff) .

Abstract. Estonia is widely credited to be a pioneer in e-governance and especially e-democracy. It has frequently been expected, too, that Estonia will be the leading country for e-voting, introducing it already for the national elections of 2003. However, in the very last changes of the respective laws, the Estonian Parliament has voted for e-voting, not for the immediate future, but only with a delay of implementation until the year 2005. Still, to our knowledge, the current article is the first and so far the only investigation into the first European case of a country that has actually passed overall e-voting laws, and a step-by-step analysis of the relevant law-making process in this case.

Back to contents or to the first page.