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Tripped at the Finishing Line: The Åland Islands Internet Voting Project

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Electronic Voting (E-Vote-ID 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 12455))

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Abstract

The Åland Islands spent years preparing an internet voting system, to be implemented for the first time in October 2019 for Parliamentary Elections. Despite this, the project was canceled the evening before the expected release date. In this paper, we explore the causes of this failure using a two-pronged approach including Information System failure perspectives and the approach to e-voting Mirabilis, focusing on organizational elements which provoked the decision not to use the system.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a more detailed development of this point, see our previous work on the preparation of Åland’s internet voting project [5].

  2. 2.

    As described in the leaflet produced by the government of Åland to explain how Elections function to citizens: “Election on Åland, 18 October 2015”.

  3. 3.

    Statistics and Research Åland, URL: https://www.asub.ax/sv/statistik/valet-europaparlamentet-2019.

  4. 4.

    Åland Digital Agenda, see: www.ada.ax/.

  5. 5.

    Available at: https://www.val.ax/sites/default/files/attachments/subject/behandling-av-personuppgifter.pdf. Last accessed 15 June 2020.

  6. 6.

    For further details on the General Data Protection Regulation in the Alandic elections, see the work of Rodríguez-Pérez [17].

  7. 7.

    In this regard, it is worth noting that it was not possible to interview the vendor in charge of the penetration test due to a disclosure agreement. The views collected in this research might be distorted due to this issue.

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Acknowledgements

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 857622, and from the Estonian Research Council, under grant agreement PUT 1361.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DigiGovLab, Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology, Akadeemia tee 3, 12618, Tallinn, Estonia

    David Duenas-Cid, Iuliia Krivonosova, Radu Serrano & Robert Krimmer

  2. Management in Networked and Digital Societies, Kozminski University, Jagiellonska 57/59, 03-301, Warsaw, Poland

    David Duenas-Cid

  3. Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Marlon Freire

  4. Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Robert Krimmer

Authors
  1. David Duenas-Cid
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  2. Iuliia Krivonosova
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  3. Radu Serrano
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  4. Marlon Freire
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  5. Robert Krimmer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Duenas-Cid .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia

    Robert Krimmer

  2. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Melanie Volkamer

  3. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Bernhard Beckert

  4. University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Ralf Küsters

  5. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Oksana Kulyk

  6. Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia

    David Duenas-Cid

  7. University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Mihkel Solvak

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Duenas-Cid, D., Krivonosova, I., Serrano, R., Freire, M., Krimmer, R. (2020). Tripped at the Finishing Line: The Åland Islands Internet Voting Project. In: Krimmer, R., et al. Electronic Voting. E-Vote-ID 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12455. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60347-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60347-2_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-60346-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-60347-2

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