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Disinfo: Estonian e-voting is not secret and has benefited specific parties

Summary

Voting over the Internet in recent years has been beneficial primarily to the right-wing parties.

In 2013, a 89-year-old retired woman took part in the elections to the board of the Reform Party. She did not own a computer and she also did not know how to use one.

There is no secret voting – in 2011, a 58-year-old Tallinn resident voted 553 times via the Internet and the representatives of the election commission called her to explain that only one vote would be counted.

Disproof

According to the Freedom of the Net 2018 report, "The Estonian e-governance system is one of the most advanced in the world." Also, the Estonian e-voting system has nothing to do with the system used by the Reform Party.

According to the report by the University of Tartu, e-voting could mobilize new voters and people of higher socio-economic status who are more likely to lean to the right of the political spectrum. "The only plausible explanation for the aggregate level differences in party vote tallies depending on the mode is therefore that a large share of typical voters have simply switched from paper voting to e-voting and this process is non-random, meaning a larger share of supporters of particular parties have done so. Should e-voting be discontinued, these people would simply switch back to paper voting", the report said.

In 2011 the Estonian Information System Authority, State Electoral Office and police discovered an anomaly caused by mass voting connected to a single IP-address. Although the voting is secret, the Estonian Information System Authority can make sure who is behind an (accidental) attack to the system and thus the lady was indeed contacted.

 

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RIAFAN - Russian (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 135
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 29/01/2019
  • Language/target audience: Russian
  • Country: Estonia
  • Keywords: Manipulated elections/referendum

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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