Use of electronic voting and upholding existing election standards focus of OSCE expert meeting

VIENNA, 16 September 2010 - An expert meeting on the use of electronic voting in OSCE participating States - as well as the lessons learned from countries that have moved away from such systems - started in Vienna today.

The meeting, organized by Kazakhstan's OSCE Chairmanship, brings together officials from national election authorities, international experts and civil society representatives.

"During the next two days we will discuss in detail the problems associated with the current and future use of electronic voting in the electoral process in OSCE participating States," said the Chairman of Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission, Kuandyk Turgankulov. "The choice of this topic is timely. The introduction of new technological solutions in the electoral process, with the development of electronic voting systems, is a complicated, multi-faceted, and in many respects, disputed issue."

Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), emphasized the need for governments introducing electronic voting systems to ensure that electoral safeguards are upheld.

"Electronic voting must operate in a manner compatible with the principles enshrined in OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections, and offer the same guarantees for transparency, accountability and public confidence as traditional voting methods," he said.

Lenarcic added that electronic voting can be useful for purposes such as enabling a larger number of voters to cast their ballots or facilitating the vote count in complex elections. But he also stressed that e-voting is not a panacea to solve existing electoral problems: "Inaccurate voter registers, dishonest counting and tabulation of the vote, and mistrust in the process cannot be fixed by IT solutions."

Discussions during the working sessions will focus on issues such as ensuring the secrecy of the vote, transparency and other issues. Participants will also address questions of certification and audit of electronic voting systems, as well as data protection and the independent observation of electronic voting processes.

The OSCE enhanced its capacity to advise participating States on new voting technologies by creating a dedicated position within ODIHR, the OSCE institution tasked with electoral assistance and observation. ODIHR is in the process of developing guidelines for observing electronic voting processes.