Estonians vote online for EU

Tallinn (Estonia), May 20: Estonia was crippled by cyberattacks on government networks during a dispute with Russia in 2007. Today the tiny techsavvy nation is so certain of its cyber defences that it is the only country in the world to allow internet voting for the entire electorate, in every election, and thousands have already done so ahead of elections to the European Parliament.

Internet voting or ivoting has been available since 2005 in the nation that gave the world Skype, and the percentage of voters using the internet to cast ballots has increased with each election, reaching 44% of voters in national election in March.

Linda Lainvoo was one of the first Estonians to vote in the European Parliament election, which she did from a cafe before heading to work Thursday morning. The 32-year-old civil servant has voted online since she was first eligible to vote.

“I couldn't imagine my life any different,” Lainvoo said after logging into a secure online portal with her ID card and a PIN code. “I do everything online so I don't have to stand in

■ Internet voting or i-voting has been available since 2005 in the nation that gave world Skype.

■ Polls are taking place from May 2326 across the bloc.

queues and do things on paper.” After downloading an app and identifying herself, she viewed the electoral lists inside a virtual ‘voting booth’ and selected her candidate.

The elections are taking place from May 23-26 across the 28-member bloc to fill 751-seat European Parliament, where Estonia, a nation of just 1.3 million, has six representatives.

It took Lainvoo about 30 seconds to vote and by the time she had finished, around 2,000 others in Estonia had also voted.

Estonia's i-voting system runs from the 10th until the fourth day before the election and allows people to cast multiple ballots, with only the last vote counting. This aims to prevent voter coercion. Young, tech-savvy males made up the bulk of i-voters in the first few elections.