Internet voting doesn’t increase turnout in Estonian elections

Estonia offers Internet voting for advance voting only.  The majority of Estonians vote in person, on paper, on election day.

One of the persistent myths about Internet voting is that it must increase turnout.  It doesn’t.

Estonia has been offering Internet voting since its 2005 Local elections.

Turnout has declined in the last two local elections:

2009: 60.6%
2013: 58.0%
2017: 53.3%

Turnout declined in the last Parliamentary election:

2015: 64.2%
2019: 63.7%

Also note that less than 30% of ELIGIBLE voters chose to use Internet voting for the Parliamentary election.  The exact numbers are 28.1% of ELIGIBLE voters using Internet voting.  That is an absolute number of 247,232 Internet voters.  The total number of votes cast in Estonia using Internet and paper was 565,037.

Canada has higher turnout than Estonia

For comparison purposes, in Canada’s all-paper, hand-counted Parliamentary election in 2015, the turnout was higher than in Estonia in 2015.  Canada’s turnout was 68.3%.  The total number of votes cast in Canada was 17,711,983.

Data from:

• Statistics about Internet Voting in Estonia
• News Release – According to specified information, voter turnout was 63,7% [in the 2019 Parliamentary elections] – March 5, 2019
• Estonia – 2019 Parliamentary elections – Voter turnout statistics
• Estonia – 2019 Parliamentary elections – Voting results in detail
• Elections Canada – Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums

Previously:
October 15, 2017  Estonian municipal council elections 2017 – Kohalikud valimised 2017
September 5, 2017  Estonian ID card vulnerability and [2017] election
December 12, 2016  Online voting doesn’t increase turnout
July 8, 2016  Estonian Internet voting and turnout myths
March 8, 2011 Estonian vote-counting system fails

• Internet voting