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Which Countries Use Online Voting?

And how do they use it?

According to the latest survey by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), an intergovernmental organization based in Stockholm that supports and strengthens democratic institutions and processes around the world, 8 countries in the world currently allow their voters to cast their ballots online. However, the way in which these countries use internet voting differs substantially from one case to another.

All Voters, Every Election

To date, Estonia remains the only country in the world in which any citizen can cast a remote electronic vote during elections to their national parliament (the Riigikogu), to local government councils, or to the parliament of the European Union.

The Baltic state, which became an online voting pioneer in 2005, is now a standard reference for the use of Internet voting technology, and their citizens are increasingly taking advantage of it. During the 2019 Riigikogu elections, for example, 247,232 voters cast an online ballot. That same year, 47% of the valid votes cast during the elections to the European parliament were cast by online voters.

Only Certain Voters

On the other hand, some countries only allow certain groups of voters to cast their ballots over the internet. In countries such as France, Panama or Pakistan, for example, the option to vote online is reserved for voters who live abroad.

France started piloting the use of online voting for voters abroad in 2003, offering this possibility to all citizens living abroad for the first time during the 2012 parliamentary elections. Shortly after becoming a possibility, online voting became the first choice by more than half of voters living abroad.

In other countries, such as Armenia, this possibility is further reserved to diplomatic and military staff posted abroad.

Similarly, several States in Australia have taken advantage of internet voting to ensure that voters with disabilities, particularly those with visual impairments or lower literacy levels, can cast their votes independently and without breaching the secrecy of their choices. By being able to use their computer screen reader tools when accessing a web-based platform, visually impaired voters are able to vote remotely and on their own.

The State of New South Wales started piloting online voting in 2011 and greatly extended the option in 2015, when 286,000 voters used this channel. Similar projects were replicated in Western Australia in 2017.

Under Particular Requirements

There are also some countries that allow both voters who live abroad and those who live within the country to cast an online ballot, but with certain restrictions. In Switzerland, where internet voting pilots started as early as 2004, the cantons can decide to offer internet voting to voters abroad and to a certain number of voters within their borders, depending on the security features provided by the internet voting system that they plan to use. To date, up to 15 cantons have offered this possibility to part of their electorate.

Local Elections Only

Finally, some countries are taking advantage of online voting limiting its use to elections at the local level. This is the case, for instance, in Canada, where municipalities in the provinces of Ontario and Nova Scotia have been using internet voting since 2003 and 2008, respectively.

The number of communities offering online voting has been growing steadily since then: in Nova Scotia, it increased from 4 municipalities in 2008 to 20 in 2016; and in Ontario, from 12 in 2003 to over 150 in 2018. Beyond the municipal level, the Northwest Territories became the first jurisdiction in Canada to use online voting in a provincial and territorial election in 2019: 489 votes, equivalent to 3.7% of the total, were cast online.

This article was written by Adrià Rodríguez Pérez, Public Policy Researcher at Scytl.