In Estonia, you would be.
Estonia was the world’s first country to enable online voting in national elections. But how exactly does it work? Thad Hall posted a nice overview of Estonia’s e-voting system today over on Election Updates. Here is the key passage:
In Estonia, when you turn 18, you are automatically registered to vote at your address at that time. In addition, the person obtains a national identification card that has both a photo identification component and a digital signature. The identification card can be used for a variety of reasons, including making banking transactions …. Then, every time a person moves, they notify the local government of their move and their registration is automatically updated.
Tying in voter registration with one’s official identity card that also facilitates banking transactions is a neat little package that certainly affirms Estonia’s “E-stonia” reputation (read more here and here). But adding in automatic voter registration at age 18 is an inspired stroke that can’t help but boost voter participation and strengthen democracy. Other countries could learn something useful here.
