Last updated on December 17, 2013

The government acted quickly in the wake of the release of the Commissions’ reports. During the press conference in which the Voting with Confidence report was released on  September 27, 2007, the State Secretary for the Interior announced that the 1997 Regulation for Approval of Voting Machines would be withdrawn. 

“We do not trust voting computers” had filed an administrative law procedure against the approval of NEDAP machines with the District Court of Amsterdam in March 2007. On October 1, 2007, the District Court decertified all NEDAP computers in use in the Netherlands as a result of the judicial procedure. With the approval of SDU voting machines already withdrawn, this decision left no voting machines certified for use in the Netherlands. On October 21, 2007, the 1997 Regulation for Approval of Voting Machines was officially withdrawn by Parliament, and the Decree of October 19, 1989 was amended, taking out the provisions that gave the minister responsibility for new regulations on approving voting machines. This legislative action removed the possibility to certify any new voting machines.

NEDAP filed an appeal against the decertification order of the District Court and also lodged a complaint with the MOIKR against the withdrawal of the 1997 regulation. However, these appeals were ultimately unsuccessful. 

The MOIKR decided, based on the recommendations from the two advisory commissions, that use of paper ballots is preferred. However, several specific groups of society face challenges using paper ballots. Therefore, the MOIKR is currently conducting research into a new ballot design. The purpose of this new design is to facilitate voting by voters who are blind or have visual impairments, assist voters challenged by the Dutch language, provide the possibility to send the ballot electronically to voters living and working abroad and to facilitate counting of the ballots, possibly by the use of technology. At the moment, testing of several new designs of ballot papers is being conducted and new legislation for the use of the new design is being prepared. 

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Netherlands: Lessons Learned