ACEEEO Association of European Election Officials discussions on evoting

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ACEEEO Association of European Election
Officialsdiscussions on e-voting
Council of Europe Meeting to Review Developments
in e-voting November 24 2006.

• Jeno Szép

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Introduction to ACEEEO

• Founded in 1991
• The aim of founding ACEEEO was to provide a forum
  for the exchange of information on election and
  political processes among election officials and
  scientific experts. ACEEEO is a non-governmental
  organization, operating independently of parties
  and governments.

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Goals fromulated in 1991

• Fostering transparent election systems,
• Discussing problems encountered during the
  institutionalisation of free, democratic and fair
  elections,
• Inviting election observers to countries on a
  mutual basis so as to increase common
  professional knowledge, and
• Sharing information among the members in order to
  aid the further development of democratic
  electoral processes.

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• Members are
• Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia
  and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia,
  Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,
  Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania,
  Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovakia, Turkey and
  the Ukraine
• There are annual conferences since 1991

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• London 23-25 October 2003
• Media and Elections E-voting
• Two plenary sessions and a workshop on e-voting
• Exhibition and presentations by the Suppliers of
  Election Equipment and Services

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RECOMMENDATION ON E-VOTING, (Adopted by the
General Assembly of the ACEEEO on 25 October
2003)

• 1. In the modernization process of governments
  utilization of new and innovative technologies
  should be encouraged. Governments commitment is
  necessary in this direction.
• 2. It is necessary to use computer technology
  in all segments of an election system. This is
  considered as the development of e-election.
  E-voting is an important part of e-election, and
  can be carried out when all the other segments of
  the election system are already computerized.

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• 3. Election management bodies should develop
  detailed plans to implement any e-election
  systems. Information technology used for e-voting
  purposes should be introduced gradually, thus
  gaining the confidence of both election officials
  and voters. It is advisable to start with pilot
  projects and extend the system thereafter. The
  advised sequence of introducing e-voting
  technologies is to start at the most controlled
  environment (polling stations) and move to remote
  voting afterwards.
• 4. When considering an e-voting system it is
  necessary to comply with the legal, operational
  and technical standards for e-voting prepared by
  the Council of Europe and planned to be adopted
  by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of
  Europe in 2004. The considered e-voting system
  need to be adequately legitimized by the
  electoral law and precise by-laws thereto at the
  national level.
• 5. The e-election development should be completed
  within 5 to 10 years depending on the member
  countrys specific system of election and
  infrastructure.

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• Tirana, Albania, 8-11 September 2004
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• Voter Turnout with special regard to the first
  time voters
• Workshop on e-voting
• Exhibition and presentations by the Suppliers of
  Election Equipment and Services

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• Siófok, Hungary, 14-17 September 2005 (also a
  conference of Global Election Organization)
• Legal remedies in the election
  processesStandards of electronic voting
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• Plenary session and workshop on e-voting
• Exhibition and presentations by the Suppliers of
  Election Equipment and Services

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RECOMMENDATION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF E-VOTING
(Adopted by the Conference of Global Election
Organizations and General Assembly of the ACEEEO
in Siófok, Hungary on 17 September 2005)

• The Conference of Global Election Organizations
  and General Assembly Meeting of the Association
  of Central and Eastern European Election
  Officials (ACEEEO), call on their Members to take
  measures where appropriate to promote the
  introduction of e-voting technologies in the
  voting process as follows

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• 1. Members shall establish an international
  cooperation to create common perspective and a
  common vision for the development of e-democracy
  and e-voting. This will support sharing of
  information and, in particular, enable the
  setting out of the possible directions, the
  identification of best practices and the
  provision of guidance. The result of the joint
  work should be an e-democracy route map which can
  be utilised by Member states.Advantages of this
  international co-operation greater public
  confidence in e-voting systems greater
  confidence in e-voting systems among
  politicians enhance interoperability speed up
  the introduction of e-voting minimize the cost
  of the introduction of e-voting

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• 2. It is advised that election authorities
  develop a national plan for the modernization of
  the election process that includes e-voting. Such
  plans can be integrated into national strategies
  on the development of e-government.
• 3. The planned e-voting systems should respect
  the obligations and commitments of the accepted
  basic international documents on democratic
  elections, such as the Universal Declaration of
  Human Rights, the Code of Good Practice in
  Electoral Matters, adopted by the Council for
  democratic elections of the Council of Europe and
  the European Commission for Democracy through
  Law, the document of the Copenhagen Meeting of
  the Conference on the Human Dimension of the
  OSCE.
• 4. Before introducing e-voting, according to
  national requirements, members should take the
  necessary steps to create the national
  legislative background to enable the introduction
  of e-voting technologies in the voting process.

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• 5. Before introducing e-voting the election
  management bodies should develop a detailed plan
  to implement any e-election systems. The plan
  should respect the followings Special
  attention has to be paid to develop public
  confidence, and the confidence of political
  parties. It is essential to define and
  communicate the vision of e-voting. Make the
  vision citizen-centered, define priority areas
  and timing. To insure the integrity of any
  e-voting technology, an adequate security system
  should be developed. Use a step-by-step
  introduction of e-voting technologies. It is
  recommended that this is done in a progressive
  manner, to develop the new system incrementally
  to meet the arising requirements. In the early
  phases of development the new system should be
  used parallel to the conventional one.
• 6. The e-voting system used at political
  elections or referenda should comply with the
  existing internationally accepted standards for
  e-voting.
• 7. Members should inform each other about
  challenges, difficulties and achievements in
  order to support the effective and efficient
  development of e-voting systems.

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• Jurmala, Republic of Latvia31 August 2
  September, 2006
• ACEEEO 15TH ANNIVERSARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING
  AND CONFERENCE
• Legal and Technical Aspects of National
  Referendum
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• Plenary session on e-voting
• Exhibition and presentations by the Suppliers of
  Election Equipment and Services

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• Agreement between ACEEEO and the US Election
  Assistance Commission on a joint project to find
  complex solutions for
• propagation of existing knowledge
• acceptance of new voting technology by the
  society
• developing public confidence
• Project starts in 2007

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Questions

• Jenö Szép
• 36 20 9448719 aceeeo_at_axelero.hu