In the first part, we will define the main properties of a democratic election, providing a typology of electronic devices and give a view on some legal documents pertaining to the matter. In the second part, the ethics of voting will be evaluated: our methodology is detailed, followed by an examination of pure paper-based elections, paperless electronic voting and verifiable electronic voting. The new concept of legally operative transparency is defined and a calendar for verifiable voting devices is proposed in the third part.