Statistics about Internet Voting in Estonia

I-voting was first introduced in the local elections of 2005, when more than 9 thousand voters cast their ballot via the Internet (this corresponded to about 2 per cent of all participating voters). Today, I-voting with binding results has been carried out five times in Estonia: in the local elections in October 2005, the parliamentary elections in March 2007, the European Parliament elections in June 2009, the local elections in October 2009 and the parliamentary elections in March 2011.

 

In the parliamentary elections in 2007, about 30,000 voters used this voting method. (This number corresponds to 5 per cent of the participating voters). In the European Parliament elections in 2009 the number of I-voters had almost doubled – more than 58,000 voters used this method (this corresponded to about 15 per cent of all participating voters). Local elections took place on 18 October 2009, and we used I-voting as a voting method for the fourth time (about 104,000 I-voters and about 16 per cent of all participating voters). In the parliamentary elections in 2011, 140,846 I-voters used this voting method. This number corresponds to about 24 per cent of the participating voters. Please see Table 1.

 

Table 1. General Statistics

 

	Local elections 2005	Parliamentary elections 2007	European Parliament elections 2009	Local elections 2009	Parliamentary elections 2011
Eligible voters	1 059 292	897 243	909 628	1 094 317	913 346
Participating voters (voters turned out)	502 504	555 463	399 181	662 813	580 264
Voter turnout	47,4%	61,9%	43,9%	60,6%	63,5%
I-voters	9 317	30 275	58 669	104 413	140 846
I-votes counted	9 287	30 243	58 614	104 313	140 764
I-votes cancelled (replaced with paper ballot)	30	32	55	100	82
Multiple I-votes (replaced with I-vote)	364	789	910	2 373	4 384
I-voters among eligible voters	0,9%	3,4%	6,5%	9,5%	15,4%
I-voters among participating voters	1,9%	5,5%	14,7%	15,8%	24,3%
I-votes among advance votes	7,2%	17,6%	45,4%	44%	56,4%
I-votes cast abroad among I-votes	n.a.	2% * 51 states	3% * 66 states	2,8% ** 82 states	3,9%* 105 states
I-voting periood	3 days	3 days	7 days	7 days	7 days
I-voters using mobile-ID	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	2 690
I-voters using mobile-ID among I-voters	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	1,9%

 * permanently and temporarily abroad

 

Diagram 2. I-Voters by Age

 

 

Diagram 3. I-Voters by Gender