Digital signature for referendums: Italy in pole position in Europe

By Federico Berti Arnoaldi Veli, Marketing Manager, TrustPro QTSP

Italy is the first state in the world where it is possible to sign national referendums and popular initiative laws online.

Dublin, August 31, 2021

Online Signature Collection is the web platform created by itAgile in collaboration with TrustPro QTSP, following a request from the Luca Coscioni Association and the Legal Euthanasia Referendum Promoting Committee, where citizens can sign digitally comfortably from the armchair at home, with the only condition of having a digital signature, or acquiring a digital signature.

Online Signature Collection portal allows to digitally sign the referendum proposals through a few simple steps.

The citizen who intends to sign, once their e-mail address has been indicated, receives a message confirming thier e-mail where there is a link that refers to the Online Signature Collection page where they can choose which method to sign:

• with SPID (Public Digital Identity System is the simple, fast and secure Italian access key to digital services of local and central administrations https://www.spid.gov.it/en/what-is-spid/ ): The SPID authentication will be used to sign the question with a digital signature.
• with a device: they already have a digital signature (smart card, USB key or remote digital signature service)
• without a SPID, or a digital signature: they do not have a SPID, or other digital signature, but can request the release of a digital signature online through the TrustPro QTSP service to sign immediately.

Since the launch of the online platform, which took place on the evening of 12 August 2021, the number of digital signatures collected online for the referendum initiative, to date, Tuesday 31 August 2021, are about 300,000 for a daily average of about 16,000, and have made it possible to reach and quickly exceed the threshold of 500,000 total signatures (handwritten + digital), the necessary quota so that an abrogative referendum can be presented in Italy http://www.riformeistituzionali.gov.it/it/il-referendum-abrogativo-art75-della-costituzione/.

Democracy has never been so digital.