Electronic Voting: the Devil is in the Details

TL;DR

This paper examines the complex cultural, legal, and political challenges of electronic voting worldwide, highlighting issues in protecting citizens' rights and analyzing the evolution of voting technology from a critical perspective.

Contribution

It provides an international analysis of electronic voting's development, emphasizing the recurring difficulties and shortcomings in safeguarding fundamental rights across different systems.

Findings

International organizations struggle to defend citizens' voting rights.

Technological implementations often face cultural and legal barriers.

Recurring issues in electronic voting systems undermine trust and normalization.

Abstract

Observing electronic voting from an international point of view gives some perspective about its genesis and evolution. An analysis of the voting process through its cultural, ontological, legal and political dimensions explains the difficulty to normalize this process. It appears that international organizations are not capable to properly defend the fundamental rights of the citizens. The approach that was taken when DRE voting computers appeared seems to have reoccured with VVAT voting computers and the european e-poll project.