Institutions of western democracies up to now have guaranteed the required checks over every aspect of elections. The verification of electoral procedures and results is a matter that has concerned only countries of recent democratization. Several international organizations verify electoral procedures and results in risky countries. Among them are the following organizations: OSCE, European Commission and UN. Their observers verify the whole electoral mechanism:

• that nobody is excluded from the right to vote
• that electors are really given the possibility to vote
• that there are no improper pressures on electors
• that electoral procedures are properly executed ad every level
• that results are properly counted

Humans can verify ballot papers' electoral procedures and such verification automatically implies the certification of the electoral result. Unfortunately, it's impossible any human certification of electronic electoral procedures, thus no human verification of e-voting procedure implies any certification of the electoral results.

Thus if a country ruled by a dictator, or a country of a recent democracy, would use e-vote could any international organization check the electoral process and certify its results? Surely not! For that reason dictators should spend a bit of the money they steal from their people in implementing electronic electoral systems rather than saving it in their private bank accounts

We also should really worry because for the same reasons even our e-elections are unverifiable! Of course we can still ingenuously rely on the honesty of our establishment, but we should not forget that democracy ends when electoral results are not verifiable

Some countries using e-vote are asking international organizations to check the (electronic) electoral process and certify its results (e.g. USA 2004). Why? I asked such a question to some of the observing organizations. Unfortunately I had only a reply, but from it we can deduce that: countries ask to undergo the control of international observers to induce public opinion to think electronic results will be certified by a third part authority, while they obviously will not!