15,000 Danish voters in the council of Ishoj, near Copenhagen, are invited to experiment with internet voting during the next elections for the European Parliament, in June 2004. According to the spokesperson from the European Parliament, Soren Sondergaard, the Danes aim at a high voter participation, especially among the young. 'At the same time it is cheaper and more efficient when the votes are to be counted,' he added. To overcome security concerns, the Ishoj voters will also have to pass by a 'real' ballot box to cast their votes.

In may, in a large-scale experiment during local elections in the United Kingdom 1.5 million people in 18 local council areas were able to take part in voting trials by text message, Internet, electronic kiosk and digital TV. Other governments in Europe with plans for e-voting include Estonia and Ireland (for their next general elections), the Netherlands (the European parliament, limited to voters outside of the Netherlands) and the canton of Geneva in Switzerland and the city-boards of Bremen and Cologne (for local elections).

Worldwide, civil rights advocates and security experts express grave concerns about the security, anonimity and accountability of internet elections. Governments should use open source systems for e-voting, not the closed systems currently in vogue. Guaranteeing the anonymity of voting in a living-room is a tough problem to solve. And finally, e-voting lacks the accountability of a paper audit trail that can be verified by voters.

Danes to experiment with e-vote in EP election (21.08.2003)
http://www.euobserver.com/index.phtml?sid=9&aid=12406

UK e-voting pilots deeply flawed (31.07.2003)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/32091.html