E-voting in Japan

Jordi Juste, a free-lance journalist living in Japan and working on his research about e-voting under my supervision, informs us that the lower chamber of the japanese legislative power was expected today to enact e-voting for national elections. After that, the upper chamber will decide about the 15th december.

Don't know yet how's the bill, but as soon as Jordi send me something I'll post it.

European Journal of ePractice #1

(see the article about e-voting in Geneva)

New resource: European Journal of ePractice, num. 1, 2007.
The socio-technical nature of good practice exchange

This is the first issue of the European Journal of ePractice (EjeP). It marks the beginning of a deep engagement not only with sharing but also with analysis of good practice across EU27+. Our authors, who are all members of the ePractice.eu community, showcase success factors for professionals in eGovernment, eInclusion and eHealth. While there are challenges ahead, tremendous momentum is building up. Ramon Sangüesa and Roc Fages find that the emerging Web 2.0 paradigm has a strong influence on all activities related to knowledge sharing – and is underpinned by communities of practice. They unveil three successful examples of that concept that have been implemented around the world – Development Gateway Communities, eCatalunya, and Meetup – all of which provide inspiration for governments.
Juliane Jarke has interviewed ePractice.eu members and concludes that there are actually several communities emerging. Frank Wilson, Tom van Engers and R ob Peters’ training programme for eGovernment, which received high accolades from its participants, shows there is high potential of the combination of intense face-to-face encounters and advanced web technology. Michel Chevallier, Michel Warynski and Alain Sandoz demonstrate that the success of Geneva’s e-Voting system has more to do with a strong multidisciplinary, managed process than with the technology solution underpinning the effort.
Louis-François Fléri and Gilles Moutet illustrate how the Burgundy region’s e-Procurement effort requires a shared vision, commitment from the political top level, and sustained activity of convincing key actors throughout the process, including strong marketing. Finally, Rebecca Eynon and Helen Margetts analyse seven key barriers to eGovernment progression and identify eight legal areas that underpin these barriers. The solutions they see include: (1) creating a network of top level eGovernment champions, (2) segmenting citizens for better tailored service delivery, (3) learning to work with chaotic co-ordination, and (4) encouraging an e-Literate workforce, especially among civil servants.
Reflecting on good practice is essential if you want to replicate your success. Likewise, it provides a backdrop to think about the challenges you encountered. If you are reading this journal, perhaps you may be motivated to share, meet and learn from failures as well? Since one can learn in equal part from successes, challenges, and failures alike, we aim to cover the whole field. The European Journal of ePractice (EjeP) is a practitioner’s journal, so the articles in it are only as strong as the community around it. The peer reviewers of one article are the authors in the next issue and vice versa. Building on our unique, 11.000 member (and growing) strong community, the Journal becomes the intellectual backbone of the exchange effort. It shall provide analysis and reflection, as well as inc rease awareness of the importance of sharing solutions, lessons, technology and experience with others. I hereby invite you to take part in the socio-technical dialogue – and good reading. Opinions expressed here are the author's and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the European Commission.Read complete editorial
Author: Trond Arne Undheim
Articles
Good practice exchange from a Web 2.0 point of view
Knowledge sharing in a distributed community of practice: a case study of ePractice.eu
Training eGovernment actors: Experience and future needs

Success factors of Geneva’s e-Voting system

Regional Shared eGovernment in the Region of Burgundy: the case of eProcurement
Organisational Solutions for Overcoming Barriers to eGovernment

ESF Conference in Vadstena (Sweden)

This week we've been in Vadstena (Sweden), a really peaceful & nice town with wood houses, a great lake, quite cold and absolutely dark since 3PM... (Aggggghhhhh). Anyway the ESF Conference was really interesting. Jordi Barrat & me took part at the e-voting session, chaired by our colleague Alex Trechsel together with Robert Krimmer. Apart of us, Letizia also came to Vadstena and our brazilian friend José Rodrigues Filho.

E-Humor from the Netherlands

E-voting.CC Newsletter #6

E-Voting.CC Community News Issue 06
http://www.e-voting.cc
________________________________________________________________________

Short News
- Estonia plans m-voting
- French Senate decides to continue with e-voting
- Netherlands withdraws electronic voting machines
E-Voting.CC Activities
- Finally the e-voting database is ready: DB.E-Voting.CC
________________________________________________________________________
Dear Readers!
It is quite some time again since we last published our newsletter. This time we have one big project to announce - the e-voting database is ready. We first started to work on the database at last year's Bregenz
conference and intensified collecting data when the Council of Europe e-Voting review meeting in November 2006 stated that there is a need for a structured collection of data on e-voting uses.
So finally with the help of Stefan Triessnig and Daniel Botz we managed to put our collection online and also published an article at the VOTE-ID 2007 conference in Bochum this October.
Then it's turbulent times for electronic voting - we have reports of Estonia thinking about m-voting (voting by cell phone), France sticking with both e-voting machines and internet voting, and finally the biggest news with the Netherlands to decertify their second electronic voting machine built by Nedap.
Finally I would like to point you to the call for papers for the 2008 Bregenz conference at www.e-voting.cc/2008. As early as never before have we received first paper submissions! So please start, or continue to work on your papers so we will have a very interesting discussion next year!
This is it for now, let's all continue to work on building the knowledge on the future of voting,
Robert Krimmer

____ Estonia plans m-voting __________________________________________
Last year Estonia was the first country to elect its parliament via internet. In this election more than 3,5 % of all voters expressed their will online. Now Estonia is preparing an amendment to allow voting by mobile phone. The idea behind this project is simply: A mobile phone ID application would enable voters to identify themselves and give a digital signature. This is a big advantage because a cell phone performs the functions of an ID card and card reader at one and the same time.
More information: http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/18925/

____ French Senate decides to continue with e-voting _________________
Despite the heavy discussions during the French Presidential Election, the French Senate has ruled in favor of electronic voting in polling places for districts with more than 3,500 voters and to continue with remote Internet voting for voters abroad in parliamentary elections. In article 72 from February 2005, France highlights the advantages of e-voting. One big advantage is that elections machines make voting for disabled persons easier. In respect to the fact that every person should have the same rights and chances to vote, this is probably the most important advantage. Still, there are many doubts concerning the reliability of electronic voting ? especially for distance voting supported by electronic tools.
More information.
http://www.senat.fr/lc/lc176/lc1760.html#toc0

____ Netherlands withdraws electronic voting machines __________________
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Find enclosed a report from one of our readers from what happenend in the Netherlands ? if you have similar reports you want to share, please do so!
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An independent committee, who was installed as a reaction to the Nedap-Hack in October 2006, announced their findings: They argued that the current election machines do not offer the standards which would be necessary to guarantee the principles of democratic elections. Instead, plans are to have computers assist in casting the ballot and to print them. Later, these paper ballots shall be scanned and computer counted.
In the Netherlands the municipalities decide how to vote, electronically or by pencil and paper. 95% of the voters vote electronically. Only a few municipalities use pencil and paper.
There are two ways of voting electronically:
1. Voting machines- Nedap machines
2. Voting computers- SDU New Vote
The ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is responsible for the certification of the voting machines and computers.
In 2006 the city of Amsterdam, one of the few remaining cities still voting by pencil and paper, decided to use the SDU voting computers.

Some of the citizens of Amsterdam disagreed with this decision and funded >>we do not trust voting computers<< (www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/English). They said that the voting machines and computers used in the Netherlands for the elections are not safe (you could listen to what people voted) and that they are a black box, there is no guarantee that what you voted is actually counted as that vote. They also oppose to voting over the internet, but they consider it a good option for voters living abroad.
20 November 2006 there were national elections in the Netherlands. The SDU voting machines were not allowed to be used, their certificate had been revoked. Therefore, 425 municipalities used the Nedap voting
machines, 10 municipalities used replacing Nedap machines (who used to use the SDU machines) and 23 municipalities used pencil and paper. On 7 March 2007 the Dutch voters could vote for the provincial elections and this time also the SDU machines were not allowed to be used.
In 2007 the Dutch State Secretary had installed a commission which had the task to look at the whole voting process, also taking into account the findings of the OESO report of our elections in November and the recommendation on e-voting of the Council of Europe. The Commission published their report on 27 September 2007. In short their conclusions are:
1. Votes should be cast in a polling station.
2. Do not use the current voting machines anymore because they are a black box.
3. Voting by pencil and paper is preferred.
4. Although voting by pencil and paper is preferred, the counting takes long and is not always accurate.
5. Therefore the commission advises the following way of voting: The voter goes to the polling station, the voter selects its candidate on a voting printer (so on a machine), and the machine then prints the vote (the machine itself does not count the votes). The voter then checks if the vote is correct . The voter then puts the printed ballot paper in a ballot box. When the polls close, the ballot papers are counted by a machine.
6. They favor this option because it is transparent and you can control every step of the process.
7. There are two exceptions for voting in a polling station, one being the voters with physical limitations, the second one being voters living abroad. The voters with physical limitations should have the opportunity to vote by telephone and the voters abroad should have the option to vote over the internet.
8. Voting at a random polling station within your own municipality should be implemented.
This is the advice of the commission. Right now the State Secretary is considering her response to the recommendations by the Commission.
This cabinet response is expected by the end of November 2007.

____ The E-Voting Database is Ready: DB.E-Voting.CC ___________________
Did you ever ask yourself how many voters participated in the 2000 ICANN at large election? Finally, our database on these E-Voting uses is publicly accessible at http://DB.E-Voting.CC. We developed a wiki-style website where you can access, edit or enhance data on your own or any other e-voting use where you have data available.
Thanks to your help so far we could come with more than 228 E-Voting uses in our database. Please continue to support our database. How can you use the database? Access the information on your country? experiences by adding the top level domain to the URL, i.e. db.e-voting.cc/DE for Germany?s e-voting experiences. Editing is easy, as it is wiki style, no account necessary! If you want to stay up to date with all the changes in the database, please use a RSS-Feed Reader to subscribe to xxxx where you are constantly updated on any changes in the database.
We welcome your support to further grow the data. Thanks again! If you have any questions please contact us at office@e-voting.cc

Quantum crypto

Take a look at this notice from the Economist... CRYPTO
Is any technician in the room??? ;p

¡¡¡Cumplimos 3 años!!! / ¡¡¡We're 3 years old!!!

Hoy cumplimos 3 años desde nuestro primer post. Aunque es una cantidad moderada, lo cierto es que nos llena de orgullo haber sido capaces de ir manteniendo -mal que bien- este espacio para la discusión, información y análisis del voto electrónico. Si nuestra modesta contribución os sirve de algo ya nos daremos por satisfechos. Así que si os gusta, enlazadnos y no dejeis de visitarnos.

Mil gracias!

E-voting, the last electoral revolution

Last weekend we organized an International Workshop in Barcelona: "E-voting, the last electoral revolution", at the ICPS. During friday and saturday, a limited number of scholars from our research team (Jordi Barrat, José Julio Fernádez, Mª Teresa Franquet & Josep Mª Reniu), and some european colleagues (Robert Krimmer, Joao Falcao, Ulle Madise, Jason Kitcat & Letizia Caporusso), have very interesting discussions.

As usual, we had good moments at lunch time (see Joao Falcao taking me a photo at the same time I was). After that workshop, papers discussed will be prepared to be published by the ICPS around march 2008. For the moment, here you can find some of the presentations made by the participants:

Robert Krimmer; Joao Falcao; Ülle Madise; Letizia Caporusso; Jordi Barrat; Miguel A. Presno; Josep Mª Reniu

Last publications

"Learning some lessons from the use of e-voting. A compared sociopolitical evaluation of e-voting in Spain, Mexico and Argentina", by Josep Mª Reniu & Rosa Badia.

And a collective book, with two chapters from Josep Mª Reniu: "Los ciudadanos frente al voto electrónico: elementos para una evaluación sociopolítica comparada", and Jordi Barrat: "El voto electrónico en Latinoamérica: radiografía de un proceso en vías de consolidación"

V Votobit (Monterrey - México; Sept. 2007) -Part II-

Como de todos es bien sabido, no hay congreso -nacional o internacional- que se precie que no tenga en los eventos gastronómicos uno de sus mejores momentos. Y ello es aún más cierto si hablamos de México (y más concretamente de Monterrey).

Excelentemente atendidos por los amigos del IEPCC, en El Rey del Cabrito tuvimos uno de esos momentos especiales. En la mesa, a la izquierda de la imagen aparecen en primer plano Pedro Rezende (Brasil) y Mario Torre (Venezuela), mientras que a la izquierda Alejandro González (IEPCC), un servidor, José Thompson (CAPEL), Arturo Cota (CEE-NL) y José Rodrigues-Filho (Brasil).

Dejaremos para otro momento la crónica académica... que para todo hay tiempo... ¿no?