A Grand Vision or Grand Illusion?

摘要

In Estonia, voters last fall cast their ballots for candidates in local elections throughout the small Baltic state from their home and office computers. It is believed to be the first nationwide e-vote anywhere and the only one of its size using smart cards. Hailed as a triumph of the coming age of secure e-government services, in the end only 9,300 people clicked their way through the online ballot using their chip-based national ID cards-fewer than 2% of the voters participating in the election. That is despite the fact nearly two-thirds of Estonians carry a national ID card.