Lithuania to introduce electronic voting in early elections

Lithuania's ministry of justice on Wednesday proposed electronic voting for some phases of next year's national elections, meaning residents could be able to cast their early ballots via electronic terminals based in electoral districts.

This way of voting would only be applied to early voting which takes place approximately three days before election day.

The Seimas, Lithuanian parliament, is due to vote on the proposal in a parliamentary session this fall.

"Electronic terminals would reduce electoral administrative costs, ease the process, as well as make voting more comfortable for disabled persons and, most importantly, would prevent corruption," Juozas Bernatonis, minister of justice, was quoted as saying by ELTA news agency.

Up to now, paper envelopes have been used for casting ballots during early elections, which permit voters who expect to be absent during the scheduled voting period to cast their votes.

However, during Lithuanian municipal elections this year, early voting results were cancelled in three voting districts due to legal violations.

According to Bernatonis, electronic terminals would solve the problem, since no paper envelopes would be used and voters would have the possibility to make sure that their votes are cast the right way and without being tampered with.

However, this method of voting does not mean introducing online voting in Lithuania, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius, told reporters.

"Electronic terminals are a little bit different; step by step, first, one move towards electronic voting, later, online voting," Butkevicius said.

Hence, Lithuania's government falls short of its initiative introduced in February this year to bring in full-scale online voting as early as 2016.

In the European Union, Lithuania's Baltic neighbor Estonia has been the only nation to use an e-voting system for general elections so far. A few other EU countries have accepted online voting for local council elections.