Associations and Unions must now make it possible to vote electronically via the Internet for all elections that will take place from 1/1/2022, according to the new legislation.
Voting over Internet
Introduction of e-voting, and especially Internet voting, is expected to simplify and reduce errors in the voting and counting process, promises greater accessibility for people with disabilities and will be able to reduce to reduce the deficit of representativeness and limited participation in their electoral processes, as it gives increased opportunities for participation. Each voter can vote from their place at any time they can, as electronic voting can take up to several days.
Fundamental voting principles
Challenges of electronic voting
The duration of an electronic voting generally has to be at least 24 hours, in order to meet all the criteria of an inviolable election and can easily be extended to one week, in large clubs. This helps a lot in increasing the participation of the members in the process. Since email is generally used to identify members, practice has shown that some problems will arise with emails to a small percentage of members (deleted by mistake, directed to their spam folder, forgotten passwords, etc.). For this reason enhanced support is required throughout the process, regardless of duration.
Another serious issue is to ensure the confidentiality of the personal data of the members of the institution, in case the process is undertaken by an external body. The full compliance of the external body with the GDPR and the signing of the relevant contracts are required. Compliance can be easily demonstrated if the carrier has a DPO.
Voting security requirements
Solutions and support
Our company, due to its specialization in personal data protection and the GDPR, is able to organize your online voting for clubs and associations.
The services we can provide include:
1. Selection of the appropriate software. It is essential that this guarantees inviolable voting, ensuring that the results can not be falsified, that they remain encrypted until the end of the voting and that each member votes without being influenced by anyone else, as the election comittee may not be present.
2. Planning the elections and configuring the electronic voting system according to your requirements.
3. Creation of the election committee in the system, your ballot boxes, the ballot papers and introduction of the voters.
4. Training and support of the members of the election committee in the process.
5. Implementation of a test election for thorough control of all parameters (if necessary).
6. Creation of an instruction manual for voters.
7. Continuous monitoring of the voting and support of the electorate and the voters throughout the process, on a 24-hour basis.
8. Extraction of the results at the end of the voting and their delivery to the election committee, in an easily manageable form, as well as the list of voters.
Our company has successfully fulfilled so far the electronic voting of some of the largest organizations in Greece, such as OTE employees’ associations.
