Electronic Voting & Counting Technologies - IFES

IntroductionAutomating ElectionsThe Philippines introduced electronic voting and countingtechnologies during its May 2010 national elections.In many areas of modern life today, technology dominates. It is believed that technology isprogress; progress is good and should, therefore, be embraced. An initial look at the field ofelections may lead to a similar conclusion.Electronic voting and counting technologies are being increasingly used around the world.India, the world’s largest democracy, now uses electronic voting machines exclusively fornational and provincial elections. Brazil, Belgium and the Philippines also use electronicvoting or counting technologies for all of their national elections. Countries such as Estonia,Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, Russia and the United States are at variousstages of piloting or partially using electronic voting and counting technologies, including theuse of Internet voting.Some countries, however, are moving in the opposite direction. The Netherlands, in 2008,after several decades of increasing use of electronic voting machines, decertified all of itsmachines and moved back to paper balloting. Germany, likewise, recently banned the use ofelectronic voting machines it had been using, and in Ireland €52 million 1 worth of electronicvoting machines were bought but only used for a small pilot project. Furthermore, the use ofelectronic voting and counting technologies in the United States is deeply controversial andgenerates fierce debate between advocates and opponents of these technologies.1 See parliamentary debate on Irish e-voting at http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0625/D.0625.200610170016.html (last accessed on 24 January 2011).International Foundation for Electoral Systems 1