On November 24, experimentation of the digital voting process got under way. The occasion was the elections of the Committees for Italians Abroad (COMITES) organized by the Farnesina. Electronic voting involves electors in eleven consular districts: Berlin, Munich (for the committees of Munich and Nuremberg, Marseilles, London (for the committees of London and Manchester), The Hague, Houston, Sao Paulo, Tel Aviv and Johannesburg.
This is the first time the procedure of digital voting has been experimented in Italy, and it is an extremely important step in ascertaining the most secure methods for voting at a distance. In this connection, the General Director for Italians Abroad, Luigi Vignali, points out that “in the medium term, our goal is to test the potential for using the electronic vote abroad for other important elections. The Farnesina thus confirms a strong vocation toward digital innovation, in view of the maximum celerity, regularity, security and transparency of the electoral procedures”. For the General Director for Information Technology, Nicandro Cascardi: “it is a further step toward the digitalization of services for the citizens. Alongside electronic voting, we have already made it possible to present registrations to the electoral list for the COMITES elections completely online, through the FastIT portal.”
All electors resident in the 11 districts who registered on the electoral lists through the Fast It portal for consular services can vote in the election. The experimentation will not have legal effect for this electoral consultation, as only the usual vote expressed by mail using the pre-stamped envelope of the Consulate of reference will be valid for the scrutiny. To vote digitally, electors must link to the portal IOvoto, via the website https://iovoto.esteri.it, authenticate themselves with the II level SPID and express their preference following a procedure that is entirely guided online.
