Welcome to the historical section of Demokratian. If you are looking for a free online voting platform, open-source and based on transparency, you have come to the right place.
The Demokratian project was originally born under a very clear premise, inspired by its own name, which comes from the Esperanto word for “democracy”: to generate accessible technological tools that enable and support online participation, fostering horizontality, collaboration, and cooperation in decision-making.
For years, our mission was to offer a free electronic voting system under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPLv3). This license guarantees end-users total freedom to use, study, share, audit, and modify the source code without any licensing costs. Today, we continue to maintain this space so you can download our free online voting software in its historical and community version.
What does the Community Version v4.5 (Legacy) include?
This self-hosted version has been widely used by political parties, trade unions, neighborhood associations, NGOs, and social collectives to conduct internal consultations and digital election processes with full guarantees. By downloading the free software package, you will have access to a robust system with the following features:
- Secret Ballot Guarantee: Architecture designed to guarantee the non-traceability of the vote. No one (not even system administrators) can know what a specific user has voted.
- Voter Roll-Driven Management: Maximum security, where only previously verified individuals included in the authorized voter rolls can cast their vote.
- Multiple Voting and Scrutiny Types: Configuration of consultations through polls, debates, or complex voting with weighted voting (Borda or Dowdall count) and STV (Single Transferable Vote).
- Simultaneous Ballot Box and Online Voting: Enables managing hybrid elections. The system checks in real-time if a user has already voted online to prevent duplication if they show up to vote in person.
- Security Control and Auditing: Optional activation of vote control-verification systems through a secure password and authorization of scrutineers/auditors for the anonymous sending of voting receipts.
- Standard Server Requirements (LAMP Environment): Developed in PHP language and MySQL database, allowing you to install it for free on practically any Apache-compatible web server.
Demokratian v4.5 Community Edition
[Notice] Important notes for installing the free version
Although downloading Demokratian v4.5 is 100% free and has no licensing costs, you must take into account that deploying a self-hosted digital election software involves certain technical responsibilities:
- Infrastructure and Maintenance: You will need to hire your own hosting/server compatible with PHP and MySQL, as well as take care of the manual installation and configuration of the system.
- Unsupported Version: As this is a legacy (historical) version, it no longer features security updates, patches, or official technical support from us.
- Legal Responsibility and Data Protection: The management of voter rolls and the processing of your voters' personal data remain under your sole responsibility. You must manually configure security measures, SSL certificates, and regulatory compliance (such as GDPR) on your server.
«Transparency is not an option; it is the foundation upon which trust in any democratic process is built.»
Do you prefer a modern, cloud-based, and ready-to-use solution?
If you do not have knowledge in PHP programming or server administration, or if you simply seek maximum security and peace of mind for your organization without getting complicated with technical installations, we recommend making the leap to the new Demokratian.net platform.
We have completely redesigned the Demokratian engine into a professional SaaS (Software as a Service) version that solves all the drawbacks of the old version:
- Immediate deployment: No installations. You register, upload your voter roll, and create your vote in minutes.
- Advanced Cloud Security: Hosted on high-availability servers optimized to withstand thousands of simultaneous votes without system crashes.
- Automated Legal Compliance: Shielded infrastructure that strictly complies with European data protection (GDPR) and computer security regulations.
- Specialized Technical Support: Our team accompanies you before, during, and after your voting day to guarantee everything is a success.