In 1918, the Netherlands still voted using a black pencil. However, ballot papers were becoming longer, and it became difficult to distinguish the black dots when counting the votes. After some discussion about a new colour, the House of Representatives decided to 'vote red' in 1922. The colour red was retained on the voting boxes of the voting machines that were introduced in 1965.
Voting by way of voting machines increased over a period of more than thirty years. However, the use of voting machines was prohibited in 2007. Voting machines did not sufficiently guarantee that votes could be cast in secret. Reliability and transparency of the counting of votes were also an issue. That is why the Netherlands have been voting by means of (red) pencil and paper again since the European Parliament elections in 2009.
Committee
In the run-up to the 2006 House of Representatives elections a discussion arose in the Netherlands about voting machines or voting computers. These discussions induced the then Minister of Administrative Reform and Kingdom Relations, Mr Nikolai, to set up a committee. The Advisory Committee on the Organization of the Election Process, chaired by Mr Korthals Altes, was instructed to evaluate the organization of the election process. A good deal of attention was paid to the role of automation (i.e. voting machines) in the election process.
The final report by the Korthals committee, 'Voting with confidence', mentions eight safeguards that the Netherlands election process must offer. These are: transparency, verifiability, integrity, eligibility to vote, freedom to vote, secret ballot, equal suffrage and accessibility.
After weighing all pros and cons against each other, the Committee concluded that 'from the viewpoint of transparency and verifiability, voting with ballot papers in a polling station' is to be preferred. The Committee did recognize the (added) value of electronic tools, especially in respect of a ballot printer with an electronic vote counter.
The Committee's recommendations prompted the State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations – by then Ms Bijleveld – to have software developed to support the election process.
Election Supporting Software (ESS)
So, pencil and paper are used again these days for voting. This does not alter the fact that political parties, municipalities and the central electoral committee can use digital tools during the election process, in particular for the nomination of candidates and the calculation of the results. For this purpose, the Electoral Council, in consultation with the VNG (association of Netherlands municipalities), has instructed to develop Election Supporting Software (ESS). The reasons for providing this are:
· the large quantity of data to be processed;
· the reliability required;
· the limited number of days allowed for establishing the final results of the election.
The ESS meets the technological requirements set by the State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Ms Bijleveld. This implies, among other things, that the software is open source and has been developed on the basis of open standards.
This software was first used for the European Parliament elections on 4 June 2009.
Tool
The software is a tool in the election process. The paper, manual process retains its dominant role. The software plays no role in polling stations, but it does play a role in the first phase (nomination of candidates) and the final phase of the election process (counting and presenting the results).