Is e-voting currently used in any elections with EMB participation?
Ecuador
- Yes, in politically-binding national elections (elections for public office or direct democracy initiatives)
- Yes, in politically-binding sub-national elections (e.g. elections for regional legislature or executive office etc.)
Ecuador, LEY ORGÁNICA ELECTORAL Y DE ORGANIZACIONES POLÍTICAS, CÓDIGO DE LA DEMOCRACIA [as amended on January 22, 2020], accessed 9 February 2021
Art. 113.- El Consejo Nacional Electoral podrá decider la utilización de métodos electrónicos o telemáticos de votación y escrutinio en forma total o parcial, para las diferentes elecciones previstas en esta Ley. En este caso introducirá modificaciones a su normativa de acuerdo al desarrollo de la tecnología.
OAS EOM Mission, Ecuador General Elections 2021, Preliminary Report, accessed 9 February 2021
“With regard to the voting of Ecuadorians living abroad, the Mission applauds the efforts of the CNE and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic-related restrictions in place in several countries and thus to allow voting to proceed at the vast majority of overseas polling stations. One of the innovations in this electoral process were the pilot tests carried out for postal voting (Ottawa, Canada), electronic voting (Buenos Aires, Argentina), and internet voting (Phoenix, United States), which together processed more than 800 votes.”
Even though legislation allows the use of e-voting in the country, the National Electoral Council has not yet fully implemented electronic voting at the national level. So far, electronic voting has been used at the provincial level in 2014, notably in the province of Azuay, and also during 2021 General Elections, in out-of-country voting in several locations (Buenos Aires, Argentina and Phoenix, United States).
