e-Vote Brussels 2006 :

Specific confidentiality statement

Electronic voting is being used for elections to the Staff Committee of the European Commission. By virtue of Article 1 of Annex II to the Staff Regulations, the dates of the elections are set by the general meeting of the staff. A Notice of Election was published setting out the main detailed arrangements. A provisional and later the final electoral roll based on personnel management system data have also been published.

This statement is intended to comply with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001⁽¹⁾ ; it forms part of the notification to the Commission’s Data Protection Officer of the entire process covering the handling of personal data in connection with the elections.

Such handling covers two completely separate sets of data regarding:

1. electors: publishing the electoral roll has provided every person concerned with an opportunity to verify the contents and, where necessary, ask for corrections to be made; the list includes each elector’s surname, first name, personnel number and office address, plus :
    
   • the login name (not the password) used for accessing online systems via the European Commission Authentication Service (ECAS);
      
   • provision for a code (flag) to be added by the e Vote application upon confirmation that the elector’s vote has been cast; this can be used to establish that an elector has already voted and prevent him or her from voting a second time;
      
2. voting: a list is drawn up which records, by ballot form, the choice or choices made, i.e. in each case the number of the list and of the candidate concerned.

Since electors cannot be linked (be it via a number, name or any other reference) to their ballot form and vice versa; there is no way of finding out how an individual has voted. The very principle of the secrecy of the vote means that, once their vote has been confirmed, electors can no longer peruse their ballot form (unless they printed it out before confirming it) or alter it.

Voting is not compulsory, but it affords the best guarantee of democratic representation. The quorum set at 2/3 of the number of electors – must be reached, failing which the electoral period is extended by 10 working days. The total number of ballots cast will be regularly updated during the electoral period.

Special technical measures have been taken with regard to the computer application, communications and databases to ensure the security and confidentiality of the data stored within the Computer Centre.

When the elections are over, a certified copy of the electoral roll and the lists of votes will be made on a non rewritable CD-ROM and sent to the Electoral Office, where the data will be fed into an application which will count the votes and determine the result of the elections. The results will then be the subject of an administrative notice published in the days following the election.

The data (the electoral roll and the lists of votes) will then be erased from the Computer Centre servers. The certified copy will be kept by DG ADMIN until the expiration of the period of appeal following the elections or after any appeals which arise have been decided, whereupon it will be destroyed.

The data controller is the head of Unit ADMIN/B/5.

It should be noted that everyone has the right at any time to bring a matter to the attention of the European Data Protection Supervisor at the following address: edps@edps.eu.int
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FOOTNOTES

⁽¹⁾ Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data.