(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
A fully electronic voting system was piloted in the Finnish municipal elections on 26 October 2008. EDRi-member Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFi) had criticised the pilot program for years, recently releasing a report on its deficiencies.
Today, the Ministry of Justice revealed that due to a usability issue, voting was prematurely aborted for 232 voters. The pilot system was in use in three municipalities; this amounts to about 2 per cent of the electoral roll. Seats in the municipal assemblies are often determined by margins of only a couple of votes.
It seems that the system required the voters to insert a smart card to identify themselves, type in their selected candidate number, then press "ok", check the candidate details on the screen, and then press "ok" again. Some voters did not press "ok" for the second time, but instead removed their smart card from the voting terminal prematurely, causing their ballots not to be cast.
This usability issue was exacerbated by the Ministry of Justice instructions, which specifically said that in order to cancel the voting process, the user had to click on "cancel" and after that, remove the smart card. Thus, some voters did not realise that their vote had not been registered.
Also, there has now been at least one report of touchscreen issues. A voter had repeatedly tried to click on "ok", but either due to system lag or touchscreen sensitivity problems, it took "minutes" to get the button press registered. If hit by this type of problem, the voters may well have thought that the ballot casting process had completed.
EFFi argues that the election should be re-run in the affected municipalities, and has issued a press release arguing for the legal basis of a re-election. According to the Finnish election law, this would require a decision from the Administrative Court.
The electronic voting experiment in positive feedback - about 200 votes,
however, was interrupted by mistake (only in Finnish, 28.10.2008)
http://www.om.fi/Etusivu/Ajankohtaista/Uutiset/1224166604122
Some technical glitches explained by users(only in Finnish, 29.10.2008)
http://www.hs.fi/keskustelu/Brax%3A+Vaalitulosta+ei+voi+perua+hukka%E4...
EFFi press release (only in Finnish, 28.10.2008)
http://www.effi.org/julkaisut/tiedotteet/lehdistotiedote-2008-10-28.ht...
Flash demo of the e-voting user interface
http://www.vaalit.fi/sahkoinenaanestaminen/en/esitys/index.html
EDRi-gram: Effi's e-voting 'shadow report' (10.09.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.17/effi-evoting-report
(contribution by EDRi-member EFFi - Finland)