Many things are happening. Too many things for me to write separate blog posts. Here’s the situation as of March 8, 2017:
Canada
- Canadian Parliamentary Special Committee on Electoral Reform recommended against national Internet voting – see December 1, 2016 blog post ERRE Electoral Reform Committee Recommends Against Online Voting
- Canada’s Minister of Democratic Institutions was directed in her Mandate Letter to defend the Canadian electoral process against cyberthreats – see January 23, 2017 blog post defend Canadian electoral process from cyber threats
- New Brunswick legislature Commission on Electoral Reform recommended against Internet voting – see March 23, 2017 blog post New Brunswick Internet voting and page 21 of Commission report A pathway to an inclusive democracy
- Vancouver Independent Election Task Force recommended to city council that Vancouver conduct an online voting pilot, including asking the province to establish an independent technical committee – see slide 17 “Conduct an online voting pilot” of the Task Force presentation to council and pages 27-28 of the Task Force final report
- Many Ontario municipalities have approved Internet voting for the 2018 municipal elections (far more than this blog can track; it will probably end up being about 200 municipalities)
Everywhere Else
- The Netherlands will use hand-counted paper ballots due to cybersecurity concerns. They have discussed almost totally eliminating computers from every step of the process. See primary source Uitslag verkiezingen moet boven alle twijfel verheven zijn (“Election results must be beyond all doubt”) and many secondary sources e.g. A small, tech-savvy nation gives up on computers in this month’s parliamentary elections.
- France has discontinued Internet voting (which was only offered to citizens abroad) due to cybersecurity concerns. Terminology used is vote électronique. See primary source Français de l’étranger – Modalités de vote aux élections législatives and many secondary sources e.g. France drops electronic voting for citizens abroad over cybersecurity fears
- Swiss Post has launched a demo of its third-party-vendor-based Internet voting solution, along with some accompanying technical documentation. In the text they open the possibility of external evaluation, stating “Swiss Post is also working with universities to review the system from a neutral scientific perspective.” See primary sources in English, French, German and Italian. I encourage you to examine the documentation, available by clicking on Transparency and Publications on the page Swiss Post’s e-voting solution.
- The Prime Minister of Estonia has said the government will continue with Internet voting, but that it needs to “proactively test” its Internet voting systems to ensure they can withstand cyberattacks. Terminology used is e-valimised (e-elections) and e-hääletamine (e-voting). Secondary sources Keskerakond vilistab varasematele seisukohtadele? Jüri Ratas: e-valimised jäävad, e-valimised ei kao and tweet by @ottummelas.
- Lithuania has announced its intent to have national online voting, with a target of 20% of votes cast online by 2020. Terminology used is balsavimo internetu (Internet voting). Primary source is in the government’s plan page 18 section 3.2.2. Balsavimo internetu sistemos sukūrimas (3.2.2 Internet Voting System), secondary source Lithuanian government seeks to introduce online voting this year.
- Finland has formed a new Internet voting working group, to investigate the implementation of national online voting, with a completion/report date of November 30, 2017. Terminology used is nettiäänestys (online voting) or Internet-äänestys (Internet voting). Primary sources Finnish Government: Introduction of internet voting set as goal (2016) and Working group to conduct feasibility study on online voting (2017). Secondary source Finland to allow voters to cast votes online in all general elections (2016). The working group information page (in Finnish) is Nettiäänestys and includes some background documents as well as the list of the working group members. Note that the email address etunimi.sukunimi@om.fi is just telling you that to contact someone you construct an email address with firstname (etunimi) dot lastname (sukunimi). – See March 14, 2017 blog post Internet voting in Finland. UPDATE 2018-02-28: Finland recommended against Internet voting. END UPDATE
- In addition to Canada, a number of other countries have expressed concerns about cybersecurity of the entire electoral process, including cybersecurity for political parties. This includes: the US, the Netherlands, France, and Australia.
Paper Vote Canada 2 