Science & Technology

Riigikogu Elections Held Online

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Estonia, home of Skype and the flat tax, is experimenting with online voting for the Riigikogu, its parliament:

E-voting will be introduced for a parliamentary election on March 4, for the first time after it was used in more limited local elections in 2005. It is a fresh sign of Estonia's strong embrace of technology since it quit the Soviet Union in 1991.

The e-voting system was tested earlier this week, including the chance to choose the "king of the forest". Voters could pick an animal from 10 candidates, including moose, deer and boars.

Those savvy Estonians should have no problem voting online–their fogies already use make phone calls over the Internet:

"I will be voting in these elections via Internet, it is a good system and I think my grandfather, who is over 80, will be doing the same as well, he already calls me on Skype," said Toomas Talts, a technology worker, as he tested the system.

For more on why Estonia rocks, go here and here.