Secure Online Voting Made Simple – Insights, Guides & Best Practices

Chapters

1. 6 advantages of online elections over analogue voting
2. Voting Challenges and how to overcome them
3. Security: Check for this, when choosing an online voting provider
4. User-Friendliness: Votings Systems need to be easy. What to look out for
5. Cost Saving: Why you save so much money voting online
6. Use Cases of Online Voting by User Group
7. Getting Started with your first online election

The advantages of online elections at a glance

Successfully overcoming voting challenges 

What you need to know before introducing online voting: Conducting elections online: challenges and legal situation

Online elections offer time and cost advantages, but require security, data protection, and legal compliance to ensure transparency and acceptance. Professional election software can address these issues by specifically mitigating technical, organizational, and legal hurdles:

Legal compliance & GDPR: Systems from the EU comply with data protection regulations, guarantee secret or anonymous voting and transparent evaluation; data is stored securely on EU servers.

Secure implementation: Software creates digital voter registers, generates individual access data and protects votes using modern encryption.

Automated evaluation: Votes are counted in real time, errors are avoided, and a legally secure result is delivered immediately.

Increase participation: Location-independent voting lowers barriers, especially in hybrid and international elections.

Transparency: Audit logs and audit trails enable traceability and documentation of the election process at any time.

Security aspects: Trust through proven standards

Security is the foundation of every online election. Professional election software meets the same strict standards as banks or government agencies, and in some cases even exceeds them.

GDPR compliance and data protection

Minimal data collection: Only absolutely necessary personal data is collected, which is automatically deleted after the election.

Transparent communication: Voters receive clear information about data processing and their rights.

Technical security measures: Modern AES-256 encryption, TLS-secured data transmission (HTTPS), and strict separation of voter and vote data ensure anonymity and protection against manipulation, as well as End-to-End Verifiability and cryptography, depending on the required security requirements.

Secure authentication: Use of two-factor authentication (2FA) methods such as single sign-on (SSO) and magic links for reliable user identification.

EU hosting: Data is stored and processed exclusively on servers within the EU for maximum data protection. 

Legal protection: Provision of data processing agreements (DPAs) and comprehensive data protection documentation to ensure compliance.

Encryption and technical security

Cryptographic methods: Proven encryption mechanisms protect both data transmission and voice storage.

Authentication: Multi-level procedures ensure that only eligible voters can vote without compromising voting secrecy.

Integrity: Digital signatures and hash functions

User-friendliness and accessibility in online elections

A secure online election must also be easy to use. The best technical security measures are useless if voters are overwhelmed or participation is too complicated.

Intuitive operation for all age groups

Accessibility according to WCAG standards

TL;DR: An online voting app must comply with WCAG 2.1 AA and EAA standards.

Screen reader compatibility: Full support for users with visual impairments through semantically correct HTML structure.

Keyboard navigation: Complete usability without a mouse for people with motor impairments.

High-contrast display: Optimized color contrasts and scalable font sizes improve readability.

Simple language: Easy-to-understand wording without technical jargon makes it easier for everyone to participate.

Cost- and resource-saving elections

Online elections offer significant economic advantages over traditional paper elections. The investment in digital election software often pays for itself after the first use.

Direct cost savings

Elimination of printing costs: No more ballots, election notifications, or informational materials are necessary. The associated savings in effort are particularly beneficial for organizers and moderators.

Elimination of shipping costs: Postage and logistics costs are completely eliminated.

Reduced personnel costs: Automatic processes significantly reduce manual effort.

No room costs: Polling stations, technology, and catering become superfluous.

Indirect efficiency gains

Time savings: Immediate results without days of manual counting.

Higher data quality: Automatic plausibility checks prevent invalid votes.

Better documentation: Complete digital logging of all voting processes.

Scalability: Same system for 50 or 50,000 participants without additional effort.

Return on investment (ROI)

A professional online election typically costs between $2 and $8 per voter—with NemoVote, each voter costs an average of approximately $1. This is significantly less than comparable paper elections or other voting providers. The costs are usually recouped after the first election.

Use cases from various organizations

Online elections have proven themselves in a wide variety of areas. The diversity of successful implementations demonstrates the broad spectrum of applications for digital voting procedures.

Jump directly to your organization

1. Associations & Clubs
2. Political Parties
3. Trade Unions
4. Work Councils
5. Shareholder Meetings
6. Homeowner Associations (HoA)
7. Schools and Universities
8. Churches & religious groups
9. Event Planners and Organisers

Association elections and club voting: Making decisions securely and efficiently

NGOs often face the challenge of making important decisions with members scattered across different geographical locations. Digital voting offers flexibility and transparency in this regard—both for annual general meetings (AGM) and extraordinary meetings (EGM).

Use cases from our article Why Clubs & NGOs Can’t Miss Digital Voting:

Sports clubs voting: Board elections with several hundred members spread across different regions.

Professional associations: Collective bargaining strike elections, delegate elections, and votes on statutes with a high degree of legal certainty.

International organizations: Multilingual elections with participants from different time zones.

Forum Train Europe FTE gives us some examples of how they conduct their digital elections with NemoVote.

Political parties vote online: Clear and transparent processes

Political parties often have to make decisions that are supported by their members. Digital voting makes it possible to ensure efficient and legally compliant processes at both general meetings and extraordinary meetings.

Federal associations: Member vote, federal executive committee election (election of individuals)

State associations: Drawing up lists for state elections, passing resolutions on amendments to the statutes

District associations: Election of the district executive committee, vote on local election programs

Online union elections: Legally compliant ballots

Trade unions need quick, secure, and transparent decisions during collective bargaining or labor disputes. Digital voting makes the entire process more efficient and involves members regardless of their location.

Ballot Vote: Decisions on whether to initiate or continue a collective bargaining strike.

Collective bargaining strike elections: Voting on whether to accept or reject negotiation results.

Delegate elections: Election of collective bargaining committee members with a high degree of legal certainty.

Bylaw votes: Deciding on changes to union bylaws or regulations.

Related article: UFO: How digital voting supports trade unions

Digital works council elections: Efficient decision-making in meetings

In works council meetings, it is often necessary to conduct votes quickly and in a legally compliant manner. Digital works council elections are already legally permitted and successfully in use at Societas Europaea (SE) companies, i.e. European public limited companies and US organizations.

Works council elections: Election of works council members in accordance with the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG)

Election of substitute members: Filling vacant works council seats

Voting in the committee: Resolutions on works agreements or internal regulations

Companies and virtual shareholder meetings: Supported on-site voting

Corporations: Cross-location committee elections with thousands of eligible voters.

Cooperatives: Supervisory board elections and general meeting resolutions.

Shareholder Meetings Vote: Often require votes with clear majorities, such as for the discharge or election of board members. Digital voting is commonly used on-site, but since the pandemic most countries including the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Spain and Germany also allow them to take place virtually.

Homeowners' Associations (HOAs): Democratic Decision-Making Made Easy

Owners' meetings are often lengthy. This is one of the reasons why owners benefit from digital voting. HOAs can involve members with different schedules and locations, significantly accelerating the decision-making process.

Election of Management: Appointment or dismissal of the property manager

Resolution Vote: Voting on maintenance measures, renovations, or modernizations

Financial Plan & Annual Financial Statements: Approval of the financial plan and annual financial statements

School and University Elections: Promoting Democratic Processes

Educational institutions such as schools, colleges, and universities can promote transparency and participation through digital voting. Academic councils, student organizations, and parent representatives in particular benefit from flexible solutions.

School Voting: Election of the school board and board of trustees, election of the parent advisory council or student council

University Voting: Election of the Senate or Faculty Council, election of the AStA/Student Parliament, election of the university administration or rectorate

Church Elections and Religious Groups: Modernizing Community Decision-Making

Churches and religious organizations can use digital voting to organize member decisions efficiently and transparently – regardless of the location or size of the congregation.

Election of Community Boards: Democratic processes even in large congregations.

Decisions on Events: Votes on programs or initiatives.

Event Organizers: Real-Time Voting

Events thrive on interactivity, and digital voting can help increase participation. They're ideal for surveys or decisions during the event.

Award Show – Audience Voting: Guests vote for their favorite nominees, creating interactive and engaging award experiences

We've described how online events can run more smoothly with digital voting in this article: Mastering Online Events: How to Handle Elections and Voting