Digital transformation impacts all aspects of life, including the organisation and holding of elections. While some Council of Europe member States are in the process of introducing or up-dating legislation on e-voting, most of them are currently not using e-voting solutions. Lack of public trust, security and electoral integrity concerns, cyberthreats, costs, and lack of political consensus are among the issues often raised.

At the same time, most member States are currently digitalising many aspects of their electoral process, ranging from registration of voters and candidates; online submission of campaign expenses reports and complaints; registration and accreditation of political parties as well as national and international observers; online trainings for election administration and other electoral stakeholders; to e-identification of voters and e-counting to name a few.

The Democratic Governance Division together with the Division of Elections and Participatory Democracy organised a Conference on “E-voting and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in elections: taking stock and moving forward” on 16 June 2023 in Strasbourg, France. 

The conference addressed questions such as:

• What is the situation with regards to the implementation of the Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on standards for e-voting in Council of Europe member States?
• What are the current trends and innovation in the field of e-voting and online voting, in light of key issues such as trust, cyber threats and resilience, transparency and respect of key principles of the electoral cycle (privacy and secrecy of vote)?
• The CM Guidelines on the use of ICT in electoral processes provide orientation in this field. What are the issues in practice?

The aim of the conference was to:

• Take stock of the current implementation of the Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on standards for e-voting and the use of the Committee of Ministers’ Guidelines on the use of ICT in the electoral process and discuss best practice and challenges;
• Identify areas to be developed further as well as cooperation opportunities; and
• Assess the impact of new technologies, such as AI, in this field;
• Recommend ways forward. 

Programme >>

Conclusions >>

 Photos >>

For more information, please contact: elections.partdemoc[@]coe.int

Morning session:

Afternoon session: