electronic voting (eVote)

E-vote stands for electronic voting, i.e., voting or electing electronically. It is a simple form of electronic voting via the Internet.

There are several technical approaches to e-voting. For example, in a political election, voting can be done using an electronic input device or voting computer in the voting booth, or using optical scanners that evaluate the ballots, or directly from home using a personal computer, tablet, or smartphone. e-Voting is equally used for opinion polls as for political voting processes, which, however, must ensure unique identification of the person and anonymization of the voting decision through various security criteria. Voters can be authenticated here by digital signature, passwords, crypto cards or an electronic fingerprint.

With e-voting, election results are available in the shortest possible time, as manual counting is no longer necessary. In addition, such a procedure is more cost-efficient because considerably fewer staff are available at the polling station and for calculating the results. Since the entries are stored, a quick check of the votes cast is possible.

Electronic voting machines differ in their input systems. With an optical scan system, for example, the voter marks his or her choice on the ballot paper, which is then scanned and digitized. It is different with the input on a ballot marking device, a Ballot Marking Device (BMD) and also with the input over a Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) with those the input takes place over a Touchscreen. The two methods differ only in documentation and storage. In all systems, the entries are stored until they are transmitted to the voting center, where they are entered into tables and compiled. The results are monitored and announced under notarial supervision.