Finland recommends against Internet voting

Finland did an extensive study in 2017, running from February to November, and reported its final results in December.

The report concluded that the risks of online voting outweigh its benefits.

The original government web page has been replaced by a new page: Nettiäänestyksen esiselvitys. Documents are in section Asiakirjat (“Documentation”).
SIDEBAR: The last archive of the previous Nettiäänestys page is from June 16, 2017. END SIDEBAR

Press releases

• Working group: Risks of online voting outweigh its benefits – Ministry of Justice, Finland – December 19, 2017
• Työryhmä: Nettiäänestyksen riskit suuremmat kuin hyödyt (Finnish)
• Ministeri Häkkänen: Nettiäänestyksen käyttöönotolle ei edellytyksiä nykytilanteessa (Finnish)
• Arbetsgrupp: Mer risker än fördelar med internetröstning (Swedish)
• Minister Häkkänen: I nuläget finns det inte förutsättningar att införa internetröstning (Swedish)

Reports

• Summary of the feasibility study (PDF) – also available at julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi
• Conclusions and recommendations (PDF) – also available at julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi
• Online voting in Finland. A feasibility study 2017.  / Nettiäänestys Suomessa. Esiselvitys (Finnish)
• Preconditions for online voting in Finland. Final report. /  Nettiäänestyksen edellytykset Suomessa. Nettiäänestystyöryhmän loppuraportti (Finnish)
• Summary of the feasibility study / Internetröstning i Finland – Sammandrag av förutredningen (Swedish)
• Conclusions and recommendations / Internetröstning i Finland – Slutsatser och rekommendationer (Swedish)

Key Statements

Online voting technology and the development of the structures required for the system are not yet at a level that would enable a sufficiently secure implementation and introduction of the system. There are still open questions in terms of verifiability and the secrecy of the ballot. It is not expected that the key risks related to online voting would be solved in the next few years.

The monitoring group came into the conclusion that online voting should not be introduced in general elections, because the risks involved are greater than the benefits. Online voting would not resolve the current problems, such as the low voter turnout.

Previously:
March 14, 2017  Internet voting in Finland

Internet voting in Finland

UPDATE 2018-02-28: Finland will not implement Internet voting.  The working group report recommended against Internet voting due to the risks.  END UPDATE

Finland has announced its intention to implement Internet voting in national elections.  The working group has been struck as of February 2017 and its report is due by end of November 2017.

In its strategy session on Monday 24 October [2016], the Government of Finland outlined that electronic voting will be introduced in Finland as an alternative to the traditional voting in all elections.

above from Ministry of Justice, Finland – Finnish Government: Introduction of internet voting set as goal – October 27, 2016 – also available in Finnish: Hallitus: Tavoitteeksi nettiäänestyksen käyttöönotto and Swedish: Regeringen: Införande av internetröstning som mål

Finnish Election Director Arto Jääskeläinen further expanded on their national plan through the Ministry of Justice blog in December 2016, but in Finnish only: Nettiäänestyksessä paljon pohdittavaa: Selvitys käyntiin

Google Translate struggles with Finnish, but here is a part of the post in translation

– Can the on-line voting system to protect your launch cyber-attacks and how the voter has the assurance that the resolution of his voice remains in the system and there is calculated in such a way as he is meant? Since the election shall be submitted at any given time, a successful denial of service attack would have serious consequences. Online Voting differs significantly from many other online services: voters and his its sound is not explicitly allowed to be able to connect to each other and the election may vote only at the end of the voting period even if the links were playing again.

Many security experts have recently expressed very critical views about the safety of online vote and were of the opinion that completely secure system does not exist. These speeches are in my opinion, should be treated with respect and take them into account in the development of on-line voting.

The working group was struck on February 21, 2017.

The working group is tasked with conducting a study on the potential system to be used for online voting in general elections and consultative referendums. The study will, among other things, examine the operating environment, market and data security of online voting, analyse the related risks, and present proposals for further measures.

above from the Ministry of Justice, republished on the elections site – Working group to conduct feasibility study on online voting – also available in Finnish: Työryhmä tekee esiselvityksen nettiäänestyksen toteuttamisesta and in Swedish: Arbetsgrupp gör förutredning om internetröstning

At this point I should probably note that etunimi.sukunimi@om.fi is not an actual email address (I made this mistake myself), it’s just a formula for constructing an email address with firstname (etunimi) dot lastname (sukunimi).

There is a page with more details but it is only available in Finnish and Swedish.

• Nettiäänestys
• Internetröstning

In document Työryhmän asettaminen (“Setting up a working group”) it gives the membership. It is good to see that there are many members from cybersecurity, ICT and computer science organisations.

Name	Organisation	Role	Notes
Johanna Suurpää	Ministry of Justice	Chair
Arto Jääskeläinen	Ministry of Justice	Vice-Chair
Markus Rahkola	Ministry of Finance	member
Mikko Viitaila	Finnish Communications Regulatory Agency FICORA – Cybersecurity (Viestintäviraston Kyberturvallisuuskeskus)	member
Anniina Tjurin	Legal Register Centre, responsible for information systems in the Ministry of Justice (Oikeusrekisterikeskus)	member
Juha Mäenalusta	Legal Register Centre, responsible for information systems in the Ministry of Justice (Oikeusrekisterikeskus)	member
Tommi Simula	Government ICT Centre (Valtion tieto- ja viestintätekniikkakeskus Valtori)	member
Pauli Pekkanen	Population Register Centre (Väestörekisterikeskus)	member
Tuomas Aura	Aalto University, Department of Computer Science (Aalto yliopisto, Tietotekniikan laitos)	member
Seppo Virtanen	University of Turku, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science / Department of Mathematics and Statistics (Turun yliopisto, Matematiikan ja tilastotieteen laitos)	member
Marianne Kinnula	University of Oulu, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering ITEE (Oulun yliopisto, Tieto- ja sähkötekniikan tiedekunta)	member
Hanna Wass	Election Study Consortium (Kansallinen vaalitutkimuskonsortio)	member
Timo Karjalainen	Electronic Frontier Finland ry EFFI	member
Anneli Salomaa	Ministry of Justice	Project Manager
Heini Huotarinen	Ministry of Justice	Inspector General ? (Ylitarkastaja)

Chair of the working group may appoint a technical sub-group practice for preparatory work.

Inquiries:

Johanna Suurpää, chair of the working group, Director, Ministry of Justice, tel. 02951 50534
Anneli Salomaa, secretary of the working group, Project Manager, tel. 02951 50164

email: firstname.lastname@om.fi

Updates on Internet voting worldwide

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.