Evoting at the German Social Elections – Lessons Learnt

With an electorate of 52m the German Social Elections (Sozialwahl) is arguably one of the largest single elections in the European Union. It elects representatives of all people under social security and has been conducted through postal voting only for decades. In 2023 eVoting was introduced as an additional voting channel for the first time. This paper focuses specifically on the eVoting part, particularly the technical requirements and the voting protocol used. It analyses them against general voting principles and the relevant Recommendation of the Council of Europe.