E-Voting in Linux Operating System

First, the main requirements to the voter and his/her computer must be met.
The main stages of voting are similar in different computer operating systems.

E-voting application or voter application works with the following Linux operating system distributions:

There is also a 64-byte version of voter application. If libraries enabling backward compatibility are installed, it is possible for new computers to use a 32-byte binary.

Installing voter application
Voter application is distributed in the form of installable file rk2011.run with the capacity of 1.1 MB. There is a separate voter application rk2011-64.run for 64-byte platform.

When you have downloaded the application in your computer, please check the compliance of its SHA1 checksum to the checksum published in the web, using the utility sha1sum. Give the following command on the command line:

sha1sum rk2011.run

If the checksum displayed by the utility does not correspond to the one in the web, please contact the National Electoral Committee immediately and inform them of the possible attack. Do not in any case use this program for e-voting!

If the checksums are the same, copy the voter application into a suitable catalogue (such as /usr/local/bin). Authorise the file to run by typing on the command line:

chmod 755 rk2011.run

Then activate the application with:

./rk2011.run

Further instructions are available here.

The program requires OpenSC PKCS11 library with file name opensc-pkcs11.so. The default assumption is that the library is in the catalogue /usr/lib. . If you have installed the library in any other catalogue (such as /usr/local/lib/pkcs11), please change the environment variable EVOTE_PKCS11_LIB, so that it refers to the correct catalogue. Depending on the shell used, you have various options for that. For example:

export EVOTE_PKCS11_LIB=/usr/local/lib/pkcs11/opensc-pkcs11.so
or
setenv EVOTE_PKCS11_LIB /usr/local/lib/pkcs11/opensc-pkcs11.so.

In addition to the voter application, PKCS11 library can be used for communication with ID-card by other applications, such as Mozilla. If an application already uses the ID card, access to ID-card could be denied to other applications, depending on the OpenSC library settings.

In order to check the access denial, please open the file opensc.conf (normally located in the catalogue /etc/opensc or /usr/local/etc/opensc) and check the value of the lock_login parameter. If the value of the lock_login parameter is true, you should make sure that other applications using ID-card are closed before using the voting programme.

For example, for Mozilla click first Edit, Preferences, Privacy&Security, Certificates, Manage Security Devices. Then make sure that the status of all equipment connected to the Estonian ID card is "Not Logged In". If necessary, you can log out the equipment using ID-card from the same page.

Using a request mediator
If your Internet connection takes place through request mediator, you must set the environment variable https_proxy:

export https_proxy=http://proxy.server:8082/

to use the voter application. When the environment variable has been set, the voter application will display you a window where you can edit the parameters of the request mediator if necessary.

If there is an error
Read more about what should be done to make the ID-card and Mobile-ID function again. Help about the activities connected with ID-card is available at phone number 1777 or abi@valimised.ee.
About other issues related to voting, please contact info@vvk.ee.

If a fault in your computer or other technical equipment does not allow e-voting, you can vote in the traditional way, at the polling division.