TALLINN - The Estonian government green-lit mobile voting on Thursday, and expressed hope that voting via mobile phone will be possible by next summer for the European Parliament elections.
The bill approved by the government is geared at amending the Riigikogu Election Act and related laws.
"This bill changes the regulation of electronic voting because the world is changing and the current law and technology must keep up," Minister of Economic Affairs and IT Tiit Riisalo said.
He explained that a voting application will be created for the most common operating systems, along with a vote verification app for widespread mobile device operating systems.
"The State Electoral Office will determine the operating systems for which an application will be created for each election. This ensures technological neutrality, meaning that only those technologies that are widely used and secure at that particular time will be used," Riisalo clarified.
The minister added that a legal basis is being created to also use Smart-ID in future elections.
"Therefore, the government can say that we have done everything that is legally, technically, and financially necessary to organize mobile voting, and the final decision is in the hands of the election organizers, as it should be," he said.
"We believe that mobile voting could be ready for the European Parliament elections by June 2024. However, if for some reason it does not happen, the mobile voting process will move forward, and it will be available for the next local elections," Riisalo stated.
The minister assured that mobile voting is as secure as electronic voting or paper ballot voting.
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