Previous 3 / 3 Next

11. In the assessment of the Supreme Court, the complaint of H. Põlluaas is not timely. Technical impediments which do not allow the voter to vote for a specific candidate violate that candidate’s right to candidate provided in § 60(2) of the Constitution. The complaint of H. Põlluaas has been filed against the activity of the National Electoral Committee regarding the e-elections from 24 February 2011 to 2 March 2011 because due to technical problems, it was not possible to cast a vote in favour of H. Põlluaas during the e-voting. Acts performed and resolutions adopted during e-voting may be contested prior to adoption of resolutions on final voting results. Pursuant to § 38(1) of the CRCPA, a complaint against a resolution of the National Electoral Committee shall be filed within three days as of the resolution or act of the National Electoral Committee being announced or performed. It appears from the complaint of H. Põlluaas that he became aware of the possible violation of his right to candidate on 25 February 2011. The term for filing a complaint against the activity of the National Electoral Committee began at the latest on 2 March 2011 when the final response to the letters of H. Põlluaas and A. Silma was delivered from the National Electoral Committee's e-voting project manager Tarvi Martens. The three-day term for filing a complaint was therefore expired by 9 March 2011. Therefore, the complaint of H. Põlluaas shall be returned without review based on § 40(2) of the CRCPA. 12. The Chamber adds that upon organising e-voting, it is the state's responsibility to ensure the compatibility of the software used in elections with the most common hardware, operating systems, screen resolutions or fonts. However, achieving such compatibility may be complicated in isolated cases. In case of problems, the voter has the possibility to seek advice from the e-voting technical support. If the technical problems arising during e-voting cannot be eliminated in isolated cases, the voter has the possibility to vote by means of a ballot paper. Märt Rask, Jüri Põld, Harri Salmann Source URL: https://www.riigikohus.ee/en/constitutional-judgment-3-4-1-6-11#comment-0

Select target paragraph3

● ● ●

Polluaas for Annulment of Electronic Votes Cast in the Riigikogu Elections 2011

Judgment

Alleged Acts: The plaintiff filed suit requesting nullification of the election results based on errors in the e-voting system. The plaintiff further stated that the errors results in not every voters ability to vote for the plaintiff as an independent candidate because the Windows 7 operating system could not be scrolled to where independents were at the end of the list.

Procedural history: A voter informed the candidate and the Electoral Commission of his inability to vote for his preferred candidate. The Electoral Commission stated that this was an isolated incident and did not take further action.

Summary: The court dismissed the claim based on untimely filing of the complaint. Estonia law requires that complaints be brought within three days of the alleged action. The complaint period ran from February 24th to March 2nd. The plaintiff became aware of the error on February 25th. The plaintiff filed the complaint on March 9, 2011. The court stated that the plaintiff, if timely filed, would have needed to prove that this incident was not isolated and applied to a larger portion of the voters. No such showing was made here.

Conclusion: The plaintiff's claim was dismissed and the election results upheld.

Legal Issue(s)

Vote Form Irregularities
Vote Verification and Transmission

Region: Europe and Eurasia

Country: Estonia

Language of Decision

English

Court: Supreme Court

Election Type: General

Date of decision: Mar 23, 2011

Geolocation

Latitude: 59.4490167

Longitude: 24.69960785

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

the_estonian_supreme_court-constitutional_judgment_3-4-1-6-11.pdf
English
Download View

Election Judgments - IFES

Select target paragraph3

Polluaas for Annulment of Electronic Votes Cast in the Riigikogu Elections 2011

Primary Documents

Notifications