Background

EU citizens have the right to vote in European Parliament (EP) elections in their Member State of residence (even if that is not their Member State of nationality). (1.) Yet, many barriers to exercising this right still exist. These include a lack of accessible information, burdensome registration processes, and deregistration in the Member State of origin. (2.)

For

Online voting could facilitate the participation of mobile EU citizens in EP elections. (3.) Citizens could vote directly from home instead of going to a polling station. They could easily get information in their own language, instead of having to navigate through registration procedures and voting information at the polling station in a foreign language. Online voting for mobile EU citizens has already been tested in practice: France allows expats as the only group of the electorate to vote online. (4.)

Against

Academic studies show that the introduction of online voting does not guarantee an increased turnout. In one of the few countries where online voting is a reality - Estonia - the turnout has not grown. (5.) E-voting also requires a lot of resources committed to the system's reliability, in particular, to secure the vote and to verify identification. (6.)

References:

1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/ALL/?uri=celex:31993L0109
2. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2023/739331/EPRS_ATA(2023)739331_EN.pdf
3. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2023.982558/full
4. https://www.france24.com/en/france/20220527-mapped-expats-kick-off-french-legislative-elections-with-online-voting
5. https://skytte.ut.ee/sites/default/files/2023-02/E_voting_in_Estonia_Solvak_Vassil_2016.pdf
6. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/five-takeaways-from-the-estonian-elections-where-security-trumped-inflation-by-a-landslide/