Trust by Protocol

Estonia's internet voting system asks voters to trust institutions and experts rather than inspect the process themselves, a trust-based arrangement the article presents as comparable to paper voting. The 2023 parliamentary election saw more than half of all ballots cast online, which the article says makes it the world's first parliamentary election in which online votes outnumbered paper ballots. A study published in Government Information Quarterly found that institutional trust was a stronger predictor of confidence in i-voting and its use than technological trust. Election official Arne Koitmäe describes a verification app that lets voters check their vote was not altered in transit, and notes that only the last online vote is counted.