An error margin of 2% in municipal elections ruled acceptable in Finland

By EDRi · February 11, 2009

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Earlier last year, EDRi-member Electronic Frontier Finland (Effi) reported
of the Finnish e-voting pilot which took place in three Finnish
municipalities on 26 October 2008. 232 votes were lost due to various
usability and apparent performance issues. Additionally, there is risk of a
breach of the anonymity of the votes, because the electronic ballot box has
been archived with information on who voted and how. The e-voting project
had been strongly criticised by Effi from its inception for its lack of
transparency both in the process and software.

A report from the Council of Europe on 1 December 2008 stated that “[t]he
Finnish electronic voting did not conclude in a way which satisfies the
fundamental principles for democratic elections, in particular the principle
of universal suffrage”. The Ministry of Justice performed an internal audit,
and reported on 10 December that the audit found deficiencies in project
management.

However, on 29 January 2009, the Helsinki administrative court ruled
that the elections met the requirements of the Finnish election law,
and therefore the municipal decisions to confirm the election results were
not overturned. The court’s main argument was that a failure rate of
slightly over 2 percent does not, as such, indicate that the election
authorities would have acted in error. As for the voter anonymity, the court
rejected the complaint because a breach of voter secrecy could, in practice,
happen only through “unlawful and at the same time, even criminal”
activities.

The original complainants will most likely appeal to the supreme
administrative court. A final decision is to be expected around May 2009.

Finnish e-voting fiasco: votes lost (28.10.2008)
http://www.effi.org/blog/2008-10-28-finnish-evoting-votes-lost.html

Electronic Frontier Finland report on the deficiencies of the system
(1.09.2008)
http://www.effi.org/blog/2008-09-01-evoting-report-in-english.html

Council of Europe report on the Finnish e-voting pilot (2-3.12.2008)
https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1380337&Site=Congress

Ministry of Justice press release on the internal audit (only in Finnish,
10.12.2008)
http://www.om.fi/Etusivu/Ajankohtaista/Uutiset/1224167084256

Original complaint to the administrative court (only in Finnish, 12.11.2008)
http://www.effi.org/system/files?file=valitus_kauniainen_anon.pdf

Effi press release on the Helsinki administrative court ruling (in Finnish)
http://www.effi.org/julkaisut/tiedotteet/lehdistotiedote-2009-01-29.html

Court ruling (only in Finnish, 29.01.2009)
http://www.effi.org/blog/hhao-2009-01-29.html

(contribution by EDRi-member Electronic Frontier Finland)