Under the light of the 2010 Parliamentary Elections, Smartmatic announced that once more its electoral solution performed with complete reliability and accuracy in Venezuela. Given the critical and close results for some seats in the contest, only an auditable and secure technological platform could guarantee the fairness and accuracy of the event.
On September 26, after the polls closed, the Venezuelan Electoral Council (CNE), the different political parties, international companions and national observers as well as representatives from the civil society successfully performed a closing random audit comprising 54% of the voting machines (from a nation-wide total of 36,563). And within hours, despite the polarization pervading the country, all the contenders openly endorsed the official and binding results.
Regardless the fact that the Venezuelan event included 87 parliamentary simultaneous elections, some of them with tight results of only few hundred votes difference, the official results were announced and ready for adjudication in seven hours. And the main political forces immediately accepted them. This was only possible with an automated and accurate system. For instance, during the last parliamentary elections in Latin America (Colombia March, 2010) made manually, it took the Electoral Authorities 127 days to announce official results and adjudicate the seats.
"In the case of this event, with such close election results, Venezuelans have peacefully and speedily accepted them. We at Smartmatic believe this consensus would have been impossible without our accurate and secure voting solution”, said Antonio Mugica, Smartmatic's Chief Executive Officer.
Key electoral statistics
For the first time in Venezuelan history, parliamentary elections were carried out with 100% of the poll centers automated with Smartmatic’s technology. Despite the complexity of the event (6,410 candidates running for 165 seats in the National Assembly and 12 deputies for the Latin American Parliament), the entire process ran smoothly, with no major faults. Some key electoral statistics include:
• Automated poll centers: 12,562 (100%)
• Voting machines deployed: 36, 563 (models: SAES-3000, SAES-3300 and SAES-4000)
• Registered voters: 17,715,758
• Voter turnout: 66,45% (11.8 million Venezuelans)
• Votes cast by each voter: average of 4 per person
• Total votes tallied: 54,063,967
• Polling stations ending with manual vote due to machine malfunction: 0,02% (8)
International approval
The technical prowess, managerial skills, zeal and willingness of Smartmatic's team, together with the quality and security features of the technological solution proved once more to be an unbeatable combination toward a successful election.
Some of the international observers that endorsed the automated system expressed:
“I am impressed by the process automation. The system is simple and believable." Hama Arba Diallo, Vice President of the Assembly of Burkina Faso.
"Venezuela and Brazil are at the best point of technology deployment in the electoral process. Latin American countries should follow those routes to guarantee their citizens right to vote." John Guilliani, Central Electoral Board of Dominican Republic.
“We have seen the production process of the machines, we have done many questions, and I am impressed by the optimization and transparency of the process." Wilhelm Schmidt, Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council.
"The voting system is extremely automated, verification and aggregation levels optimal and transparent." Esteban Silva, president of the Chilean Socialist Party.
