Estonians to Vote By Mobile Phone in 2011

You gotta love it when a select few embrace technology… even if it is extremely risky, or in this case… simply raises a lot of questions.

Parliament in the country of Estonia has approved a law that will make Estonia the first country ever to allow voting by mobile phone. Cool! Lawmakers in the country approved a measure that will allow all citizens to vote in the next parliamentary elections in 2011.

I can hear the hackers and developers working away in some attempt to ‘fix’ election results already. Clearly this is new territory, and it does raise a lot of questions… to me at least. Is this safe? Secure? Reliable? Could the system possibly be rigged to allow multiple votes from the same citizen? What about identity fraud? Oh the questions, and the worries… I simply hope they have everything sorted here.

Apparently the new mobile-voting system has been thoroughly tested (GOOD!). The system requires that citizens obtain a free, authorized chip for their mobile device. The chip verifies the voter’s identity and authorizes their participation in the vote.

Last year, Estonians already had the ability to cast ballots via the Internet. Clearly this country is forward thinking. Empowering the people by giving them multiple options on how they can cast a ballot is surely good for the country… and voter turnout.

[Via: AP]