International Standards & Handbooks on E-Voting —

Personal tools

You are here: Home → Encyclopaedia → Focus On... Series → E-Voting → Introducting E-Voting – Considerations → International Standards & Handbooks on E-Voting

E-Voting

full text on one page

Topic IndexInternational Standards & Handbooks on E-Voting

There are several international documents defining requirements for e-voting (enlisted in alphabetical order of the issuing body) and that are aimed at supporting national Electoral Management Bodies with the development and implementation of e-voting projects:

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe Recommendation [Recommendation Rec(2004)11 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 30 September 2004 at the 898th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies; https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=778189] specifies detailed requirements for using electronic means in elections. It comprises 121 requirements that serve as a checklist for implementing e-voting. The Council of Europe Recommendation is supposed to be reviewed and revised in the near future.
In 2010 the Directorate General of Democracy and Political Affairs of the Council of Europe published two Guidelines that took account of developments after the adoption of the Rec(2004)11: Guidelines on transparency of e-enabled elections [GGIS(2010)5]; http://www.coe.int/t/dgap/democracy/activities/ggis/E-voting/E-voting%202010/Biennial_Nov_meeting/Guidelines_transparency_EN.pdf and Certification of e-voting systems: Guidelines for developing processes that confirm compliance with prescribed requirements and standards [GGIS(2010)3]; http://www.coe.int/t/dgap/democracy/activities/ggis/e-voting/E-voting%202010/Biennial_Nov_meeting/Guidelines_certification_EN.pdf.
Additionally, in 2010, the Directorate General of Democracy and Political Affaires also published a handbook on e-voting: E-Voting Handbook - Key Steps in the Implementation of E-Enabled Elections; http://www.coe.int/t/DEMOCRACY/ELECTORAL-ASSISTANCE/themes/evoting/CoEvotingHandbook_en.pdf. The handbook reflects the findings of e-voting experiments held in European countries.

International IDEA

In December 2011, International IDEA issued a Policy Paper “Introducing Electronic Voting: Essential Considerations” that contains guiding principles and overall goals for the implementation of e-voting; http://www.idea.int/publications/introducing-electronic-voting
In 2014, International IDEA published a Guide on “The Use of Open Source Technology in Elections” which is aimed at enhancing the understanding of Open Source Technology among key electoral stakeholders; http://www.idea.int/publications/open-source-technology-in-elections/index.cfm

Several international documents focus on new technologies and election observation:

The Carter Center Handbook on Observing Electronic Voting (2^ndedition, January 2012); http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/peace/democracy/des/Carter-Center-E_voting-Handbook.pdf
The Carter Center, Developing a Methodology For Observing Electronic Voting (October 2007); http://www.needsproject.eu/files/developing_methodology_observing_e_voting.pdf
Jordi Barrat, Observing E-Enabled Elections: How to Implement Regional Electoral Standards, International IDEA (2012); http://www.idea.int/democracydialog/upload/Observing-e-enabled-elections-how-to-implement-regional-electoral-standards.pdf
European Commission, Handbook for European Union Election Observation, Second Edition (2008); http://eeas.europa.eu/eueom/pdf/handbook-eueom-en-2nd-edition_en.pdf
The Organization of American States (2010); http://www.oas.org/es/sap/docs/Technology%20English-FINAL-4-27-10.pdf
OSCE/ODIHR, Handbook for the Observation of New Voting Technologies (October 2013); http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/104939

Further international documents are aimed at assisting EMBs in dealing with e-voting, e.g.

The ACE Project topic area “Elections and Technology” contains comments on e-voting; https://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/et/default
Ben Goldsmith/Holly Ruthauff: Implementing and Overseeing Electronic Voting and Counting Technologies. A study resulting from a close collaboration between the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); http://www.ifes.org/Content/Publications/Books/2013/Implementing-and-Overseeing-Electronic-Voting-and-Counting-Technologies.aspx

Personal tools

ELECTORAL FRAMEWORK

ELECTORAL PARTICIPATION

ELECTORAL MANAGEMENT

ELECTORAL INTEGRITY

ELECTORAL OPERATIONS

E-Voting