RECOMMENDATION
ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF E-VOTING

(Adopted by the Conference of Global Election Organizations and General Assembly Meeting of the ACEEEO in Siófok, Hungary on 17 September 2005)

The Conference of Global Election Organizations and General Assembly Meeting of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO), call on their Members to take measures where appropriate to promote the introduction of e-voting technologies in the voting process as follows:

1. Members shall establish an international cooperation to create common perspective and a common vision for the development of e-democracy and e-voting. This will support sharing of information and, in particular, enable the setting out of the possible directions, the identification of best practices and the provision of guidance. The result of the joint work should be an e-democracy route map which can be utilised by Member states.
Advantages of this international co-operation:
• greater public confidence in e-voting systems
• greater confidence in e-voting systems among politicians
• enhance interoperability
• speed up the introduction of e-voting
• minimise the cost of the introduction of e-voting

2. It is advised that election authorities develop a national plan for the modernization of the election process that includes e-voting. Such plans can be integrated into national strategies on the development of e-government.

3. The planned e-voting systems should respect the obligations and commitments of the accepted basic international documents on democratic elections, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, adopted by the Council for democratic elections of the Council of Europe and the European Commission for Democracy through Law, the document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the OSCE.

4. Before introducing e-voting, according to national requirements, members should take the necessary steps to create the national legislative background to enable the introduction of e-voting technologies in the voting process.

5. Before introducing e-voting the election management bodies should develop a detailed plan to implement any e-election systems. The plan should respect the followings:
• Special attention has to be paid to develop public confidence, and the confidence of political parties.
• It is essential to define and communicate the vision of e-voting. Make the vision citizen-centered, define priority areas and timing.
• To insure the integrity of any e-voting technology, an adequate security system should be developed.
• Use a step-by-step introduction of e-voting technologies. It is recommended that this is done in a progressive manner, to develop the new system incrementally to meet the arising requirements. In the early phases of development the new system should be used parallel to the conventional one.

6. The e-voting system used at political elections or referenda should comply with the existing internationally accepted standards for e-voting.

7. Members should inform each other about challenges, difficulties and achievements in order to support the effective and efficient development of e-voting systems.