Estonia Is Going To Allow Mobile Election Voting

Such an opportunity may appear already in the next elections in the country.

The Estonian government is going to allow voting in the country's next elections using smartphones.

ERR reports.

Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Information Technology Tiit Riisalo said that elections should be available for people’s digital lives.

“Smart devices are mostly involved now but not personal computers. In this case, of course, it makes sense to make elections available there as well,” the minister said.

Last week, the Estonian government approved a plan to enable smart device voting as early as next year's European Parliament representatives elections.

“The State Information System Department and Cybernetica company have created a prototype for the implementation of the m-election system app. This app has been tested for voting, transmitting and receiving votes and works on both Android and Apple mobile devices. Thus, we have the prototype as a technical base,” Minister Riisalo said.

Deputy Head of the State Electoral Office Arne Koitmäe explained that during e-voting, the state places the voting application on the state-controlled website. Whereas mobile voting the app is to be spread via the Apple or Google app stores.

The Estonian government has also agreed that Smart-ID can be used for identification in the European Parliament representatives elections.