Digital elections offer significant advantages such as time savings, voter experience, and cost savings, as they eliminate the need for manual vote counting and deliver results in real time. However, key issues need to be considered, particularly regarding security, data protection, and user-friendliness. The use of secure and legally compliant voting tools is essential, especially for NGOs and associations in Europe, to ensure GDPR compliance.
Digital elections offer numerous advantages over simple voting by a show of hands or voting with paper and pen. One of the biggest advantages is the time saved. Digital elections eliminate the need to count votes manually, making results available in real time. This not only increases efficiency, but also significantly reduces the error rate. Digital elections are also more cost-efficient as they minimize travel costs and material expenses.
However, there are also challenges that need to be considered. Security concerns and data protection are key functions that a digital voting tool must fulfill. Voters need to be sure that their votes are processed anonymously and securely. It is also important to ensure the platform is user-friendly to ensure a high level of participation.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter which term is used. The important thing is that it is secure, or better yet, legally compliant voting software, such as NemoVote. Look at the features right from the start: Can your candidate selection be mapped? What is your vote distribution, and how do weights count? Does the voting system offer secret elections? Is a voting app required? How user-friendly is voting for voters and creating ballots for administrators?
You should ask yourself these questions and, if necessary, check them against your statues or bylaws. For example, is a secret ballot possible, or are there voter groups that need to be represented?
For NGOs and NPOs (non-profit organizations) from Europe, it can also be particularly important that the voting solution also comes from Europe. This is especially important for GDPR compliance.
➡️Survey tools therefore usually do not offer sufficient security. Important are dedicated and voting solutions.
Implementing a secure online election requires careful planning and preparation.
Another important aspect is the legal recognition of election results. In many countries, digital elections must meet certain legal requirements in order to be legally binding. This applies in particular to the authentication of voters and the immutability of the votes cast.
🔒 See also: NemoVote security functions
In order to conduct a successful online election, some best practices should be followed. In most cases, comprehensive training of election officials and voters is not absolutely necessary but helpful to make the election process run smoothly. Platforms such as NemoVote offer detailed instructions for this.
Examples of video tutorials:
Communication with voters also plays an important role. Clearly worded invitations and regular reminders can increase participation. Test runs should also be carried out to ensure that all technical aspects function smoothly.
Finally, it is important to gather feedback from participants after the election. This helps to continuously improve the process and make future elections even more efficient and secure.