Riisalo: our aim is to create the possibility to vote with a smart device for the next elections

"Estonia's digital society is constantly evolving and needs to move into the devices that people use most to organize their daily lives. At the moment, this is the smartphone. Enabling elections on a smartphone is not impossible. The technical prototype of the application is ready, tested and the goal is to create the possibility to vote with a smart device for the 2024 European Parliament elections," said Minister of Economic Affairs and Information Technology Tiit Riisalo.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and the State Information Systems Agency, has reached an intermediate stage in the development of m-elections, from which it will be possible to produce a prototype of the mobile app and initiate the necessary changes to the legal provisions. Riisalo explained that m-voting is a further development of existing e-voting.

The prototype app has been used to test the casting and receiving of votes. According to the minister, its further deployment will require close cooperation between different public authorities. "With a joint effort, it will be possible to ensure both the technical readiness and the appropriate legal framework for m-voting, in order to achieve a more personalized and user-friendly digital society," Riisalo commented.

According to Justice Minister Kalle Laanet, electronic elections have been a success for a long time and now an important step is being taken to bring elections even closer to the people. At the same time, according to the Minister of Justice, the aim is to ensure that mobile elections comply with all constitutional requirements and maintain people's continued confidence in the elections. "The security and verifiability of the entire voting process must be guaranteed when voting by mobile phone," said Laanet.

Arne Koitmäe, head of The State Electoral Office, said that m-voting would be an important step in keeping pace with technological developments, but it must be considered in all its aspects and the risks and problems associated with it must be addressed, just as e-voting once was. “Therefore, all the complex risks involved need to be mitigated before introducing m-elections. It must also be preceded by a public debate and a clarification of the legal framework in the Riigikogu. We are actively working on all these issues."