E-voting has been used in Europe, for legally binding elections, since at least 1982 [21]. Its use is still not widespread, though interest has increased. The Netherlands was a very early adopter, and it wasn't until almost a decade later (1991) that Belgium started experimenting with e-voting. Just a few years later, in the mid-nineties, France did the same. By the early 2000's, experiments or pilots had been run in the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and the Republic of Ireland [3], among others.
In places, the pace seems to be slowing. In the UK some of the more ambitious proposals, such as SMS- and Internet-voting, will not be included in trials this year [17]. In Ireland, the introduction of e-voting was halted in 2003 by the publication of a report by the Commission on Electronic Voting [6]. The Irish government has not yet made a commitment as to whether or when the system they purchased will be used in the future.