Ivan Hendija
Episode · #162
PAMETNA HRVATSKA Ivan Hendija
Guest Ivan HendijaHosted by Boris ŽivkovićMay 3, 2026
Ivan Hendija
About this episode
What you'll hear in this conversation
The idea of electronic voting often brings with it a mix of hope for efficiency and deep-seated skepticism about security. Ivan Hendija, director of ID3, has been navigating this tension with FairVotes, a system designed to bring digital precision to elections. His experience reveals that the path to modernizing civic processes isn't a single leap, but a careful series of steps that build trust through transparency and verifiable digital trails. This conversation unpacks the pragmatic realities of replacing paper ballots with pixels, offering a clear-eyed view of what it takes to make a sensitive process like voting both simpler and more secure.
Insights from the conversation
What to take from this episode
01
FairVotes began as a custom solution for clients who found paper-based elections for over a thousand voters too costly, at 7-8 kuna per person. The most enduring product ideas often emerge from directly addressing an expensive, concrete problem for an existing customer, rather than from abstract market analysis.
02
After observing the custom system's intuitiveness across age groups, higher turnout, and faster processing, Hendija's team decided to build FairVotes into a full platform. The real signal to productize a service isn't just client satisfaction, but tangible evidence of superior outcomes that can scale.
03
Full digital national elections are 'not that soon,' Hendija believes; the first practical step will be a hybrid model using kiosks at polling stations to reduce paperwork. Major societal shifts, especially those touching on trust, rarely happen in one leap, but through incremental, familiar steps that bridge old and new processes.
04
FairVotes scales its service from simple, affordable voting for small community groups to complex, supervised elections for thousands of voters. A single core technology can serve vastly different market segments by offering tiered services, from self-serve to a fully managed process.
05
Every action within FairVotes, from receiving a ballot to casting it, is digitally recorded, forensically traceable, and secure. The core advantage of digitizing sensitive processes isn't just speed, but the immutable audit trail that removes human bias and makes manipulation impossible.
06
Confronting skepticism about digital voting, Hendija emphasizes that all system traces are digital and 'impossible to delete,' preventing votes from disappearing or deceased voters from appearing. The most effective way to build trust in new technology isn't just explaining how it works, but explicitly addressing and disproving the specific fears people hold.
07
FairVotes provides election results 'with one click' from the moment voting begins, with configurable options for visibility to organizers and voters. Instant, transparent data is not merely a convenience; it is a tool for managing public perception and building trust throughout the entire election process.
08
Hendija argues digital voting is 'much safer' than traditional methods, which are vulnerable to fake IDs or biased observers. Digital verification standardizes identity checks, removing human variability and potential for fraud inherent in physical, human-mediated processes.