Electronic Voting Receives Big Brother Anti-Award

Electronic Frontier Finland has awarded its "Big Brother" prize (Isoveli) to the Justice Ministry for its pilots of electronic voting in the 2008 municipal elections. Electronic Frontier Finland is an interest group established to ensure openness on the Internet and to protect the electronic rights of Finnish citizens. The Big Brother award is granted to individuals or organisations that are seen to promote the watchdog society in Finland. In granting the dubious distinction the organisation criticised the electronic voting pilots because they weakened national information security.

IT services company Tieto-Enator also received the award for its role in developing the electronic voting system.

Voters in the 2008 municipal elections were able to cast electronic ballots in three pilot areas: Vihti, Karkkila and Kauniainen.

Officials report that electronic voting proceeded without any problems in the test districts on election day.

In Kauniainen, where voter turnout is traditionally high, a majority of voters opted for electronic voting.