Regulating the Use of ICT in Elections: the Contribution of the Council of Europe

Ardita Driza Maurer

Ardita Driza Maurer Independent consultant

Keywords: Council of Europe, elections, European electoral heritage, free and democratic elections, ICT in elections, e-voting, i-voting, e-counting, regulation, recommendation, guideline

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) solutions are increasingly used to support most processes of the electoral cycle. Their regulation must ensure that constitutional principles, in particular those on free and democratic elections, are upheld. The Council of Europe is the only international organisation to have issued minimum legal standards on the regulation of e-voting and of other ICT used in elections. Standards guide national competent authorities when drafting national regulations.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Ardita Driza Maurer, Independent consultant

Ardita Driza Maurer is a jurist, based in Switzerland. She works as independent consultant with a focus on legal implications of the use of ICT-backed solutions throughout the electoral cycle. She was the lead expert for the two Council of Europe instruments in this area, namely the Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)51 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on standards for e-voting (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 14 June 2017) and the Committee of Ministers’ Guidelines on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in electoral processes in Council of Europe member States (Adopted by the Ministers’ Deputies on 9 February 2022). Prior to that, she was director of the Swiss federal Chancellery internet voting project.

References

Council of Europe. (2020). Digital Technologies in Elections. Questions, lessons learned, perspectives. https://rm.coe.int/publicationdigital-technologies-regulations-en/16809e803f.

Driza Maurer, A. (2013). Report on the possible update of the Council of Europe Recommendation Rec (2004)11 on legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting. https://rm.coe.int/168059be23.

Driza Maurer, A. (2017). Updated European Standards for E-voting. The Council of Europe Recommendation Rec(2017)5 on Standards for E-voting. In: Krimmer, R. Volkamer, M., Braun Binder, N., Kersting, N., Pereira, O. y Schürmann, C. (Eds.), Electronic Voting. E-Vote-ID 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 146-162). Springer.

Driza Maurer, A., & Barrat, J. (Eds.). (2015). E-voting case-law. A comparative analysis. Ashgate/Routledge.

Driza Maurer, A., Volkamer, M., & Krimmer, R. (2022). Council of Europe Guidelines on the Use of ICT in Electoral Processes, in Computer Security. ESORICS 2022, International Workshops, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 26-30, 2022, Revised Selected Papers. S. Katsikas

Stein, R., & Wenda, G. (Eds.). (2014). Ten Years of Rec(2004)11 – The Council of Europe and E-voting. In: Krimmer, R., & Volkamer, M. (Eds.), EVOTE 2014. Proceedings (pp. 105-110). TUT Press.

Venice Commision. (2004). Principles for a fundamental rights-compliant use of digital technologies in electoral processes. Council of Europe. https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDLAD(2020)037-e.

Venice Commision. (2004). Report on the compatibility of remote voting and electronic voting with the standards of the Council of Europe. Council of Europe. http://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/CDL-AD(2004)012.aspx.