Council of Europe Meeting to Review Developments in e-voting

November 16-17 2010.

ACEEEO
Association of European Election
Officials
discussions on e-voting
Jen Szp

Introduction to ACEEEO
Founded in 1991
The aim of founding ACEEEO was to provide a
forum for the exchange of information on
election and political processes among election
officials and scientific experts. ACEEEO is a
non-governmental organization, operating
independently of parties and governments.

Goals fromulated in 1991

1.
2.

3.

4.

Fostering transparent election systems,

Discussing problems encountered during
the institutionalisation of free,
democratic and fair elections,
Inviting election observers to countries
on a mutual basis so as to increase
common professional knowledge, and
Sharing information among the members
in order to aid the further development
of democratic electoral processes.

Members organizations are from 24 countries

Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia,
Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, and
also we have Afghanistan in an observer
status
Annual conferences are organized since
1991 and we have numerous other
activities

Some conferences:

Media and Elections & E-voting

London, UK 2003 - Two plenary
sessions and a workshop on evoting, exhibition and presentations
by the Suppliers of Election
Equipment and Services

RECOMMENDATION ON E-VOTING, (Adopted by

the General Assembly of the ACEEEO on 25
October 2003)
1.
In the modernization process of governments
utilization of new and innovative technologies
should be encouraged. Governments commitment
is necessary in this direction.
2.
It is necessary to use computer technology in
all segments of an election system. This is
considered as the development of e-election. Evoting is an important part of e-election, and can
be carried out when all the other segments of the
election system are already computerized.

3.
Election management bodies should develop
detailed plans to implement any e-election systems.
Information technology used for e-voting purposes should
be introduced gradually, thus gaining the confidence of
both election officials and voters. It is advisable to start
with pilot projects and extend the system thereafter. The
advised sequence of introducing e-voting technologies is
to start at the most controlled environment (polling
stations) and move to remote voting afterwards.
4.
When considering an e-voting system it is necessary
to comply with the legal, operational and technical
standards for e-voting prepared by the Council of Europe
and planned to be adopted by the Committee of Ministers
of the Council of Europe in 2004. The considered e-voting
system need to be adequately legitimized by the
electoral law and precise by-laws thereto at the national
level.
5. The e-election development should be completed within
5 to 10 years depending on the member countrys
specific system of election and infrastructure.

Voter Turnout with special regard to

the first time voters
Tirana, Albania 2004 -Workshop on e-voting, Exhibition
and presentations by the Suppliers of Election
Equipment and Services

Legal remedies in the election

processes
Standards of electronic voting
Sifok, Hungary 2005 (also a conference of Global
Election Organization) - Plenary session and
workshop on e-voting, exhibition and presentations
by the Suppliers of Election Equipment and Services

RECOMMENDATION ON THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF E-VOTING (Adopted by
the Conference of Global Election
Organizations and General Assembly of the
ACEEEO in Sifok, Hungary on 17 September
2005)
The Conference of Global Election Organizations and
General Assembly Meeting of the Association of
Central and Eastern European Election Officials
(ACEEEO), call on their Members to take measures
where appropriate to promote the introduction of evoting technologies in the voting process as follows:

1. Members shall establish an international

cooperation to create common perspective and a
common vision for the development of edemocracy and e-voting. This will support sharing
of information and, in particular, enable the setting
out of the possible directions, the identification of
best practices and the provision of guidance. The
result of the joint work should be an e-democracy
route map which can be utilised by Member states.
Advantages of this international co-operation:
greater public confidence in e-voting systems
greater confidence in e-voting systems among
politicians
enhance interoperability
speed up the introduction of e-voting
minimize the cost of the introduction of e-voting

2. It is advised that election authorities develop a national

plan for the modernization of the election process that
includes e-voting. Such plans can be integrated into
national strategies on the development of e-government.
3. The planned e-voting systems should respect the
obligations and commitments of the accepted basic
international documents on democratic elections, such as
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Code of
Good Practice in Electoral Matters, adopted by the
Council for democratic elections of the Council of Europe
and the European Commission for Democracy through
Law, the document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the
Conference on the Human Dimension of the OSCE.
4. Before introducing e-voting, according to national
requirements, members should take the necessary steps
to create the national legislative background to enable
the introduction of e-voting technologies in the voting
process.

5. Before introducing e-voting the election management bodies

should develop a detailed plan to implement any e-election
systems. The plan should respect the followings:
Special attention has to be paid to develop public confidence,
and the confidence of political parties.
It is essential to define and communicate the vision of e-voting.
Make the vision citizen-centered, define priority areas and timing.
To insure the integrity of any e-voting technology, an adequate
security system should be developed.
Use a step-by-step introduction of e-voting technologies. It is
recommended that this is done in a progressive manner, to
develop the new system incrementally to meet the arising
requirements. In the early phases of development the new
system should be used parallel to the conventional one.
6. The e-voting system used at political elections or referenda should
comply with the existing internationally accepted standards for evoting.
7. Members should inform each other about challenges, difficulties
and achievements in order to support the effective and efficient
development of e-voting systems.

 Legal and Technical Aspects of National

Referendum
Jurmala, Latvia 2006 - Plenary session on e-voting
Professional education of electoral actors
Strasbourg, France 2007
Ensuring Security of elections
Constanta, Romania 2008 - A presentation on IT security of
elections
Judicial protections of electoral rights
Yerevan, Armenia 2009
Developing Accurate Voter Lists
Tbilisi, Georgia 2010 Presentation on e-voting enabled
voters list

Some recent activities:

Developing accurate voters list in
transitional democracies

analysis of voters registration

preparation of a document concentrating on
the best practices
conference focusing on the registration of
voters

Youth voters' education

handbook on youth voters education

first time voters in the House of the Nation
the www.firstvoter.org website is launched

The Association of European Election

Officials (ACEEEO) organizes an
international conference from 15-18
June 2011 in Budapest, Hungary in
the last month of the Hungarian
presidency of the European Union to
commemorate the 20 anniversary of
the ACEEEO.