The Vote Must Go On: Disaster-Proofing Elections

The report "Fostering Resilient Elections: Opportunities for Stronger Election Administration and Emergency Management Collaboration" (September 2025), published by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, is a timely and insightful contribution to one of democracy's most urgent challenges: how to keep elections running when calamity strikes.

Drawing from consultations with election officials and emergency managers across 24 U.S. states, the paper offers a grounded, nonpartisan roadmap for strengthening preparedness, coordination, and trust between two vital sectors that often meet for the first time—literally—“in the middle of a hurricane.”

The authors deserve high praise for addressing a clear and current concern, and for presenting a practical, systems-level approach to election resilience. They show that while emergency managers focus on life safety and infrastructure, and election administrators focus on access and integrity, both share a common mission: continuity under pressure.

The report’s step-by-step recommendations—from integrated planning and crisis communication protocols to joint tabletop exercises and continuity-of-operations plans—illustrate a mature understanding of how electoral systems must evolve in an age of compounding risk. The report also stands out for its clarity on the cultural and operational gap between the two professions.

As it notes, election officials operate under rigid legal deadlines that cannot be postponed even during natural disasters, while emergency managers are trained for flexible, all-hazards response. By encouraging year-round engagement, shared situational awareness, and a unified “language of resilience,” the paper helps bridge this divide with actionable realism rather than abstract theory.

The paper is a vital step toward institutionalizing the principle that the vote must go on—no matter the storm, the fire, or the flood. It reminds us that democratic continuity, like emergency management, depends on foresight, not reaction.

And now, the call to action is ours. Election administrators everywhere should read this report, pick up the phone, and reach out to their emergency management counterparts. Start the conversation, build the relationship, and plan together—even if the sky is clear today. Because the time to strengthen elections is not when the storm arrives, but long before it forms.

Biometrics for the Balkans: Albania’s Diaspora Voter Registration Could Inspire Stronger Regional Democracy

In 2025, Albania quietly achieved something many of its Balkan neighbors have long aspired to but never fully realized: it digitally enfranchised its diaspora. Through a secure, biometric-based electronic voter registration system, Albania enabled nearly a quarter of a million citizens living abroad to register to vote for the first time—a milestone rooted not only in political will but in rigorous technical design.

This achievement is documented in the paper “Empowering the Diaspora: A Digital Approach to Voter Registration for Albanian Citizens Out of the Country” by Elira Hoxha, Jona Josifi, and Redion Lila (University of Tirana, 2025), which was presented during the recent E-Vote-ID 2025. The study offers the first detailed analysis of how Albania transformed diaspora enfranchisement from an administrative aspiration into an operational reality, merging electoral reform, cybersecurity best practices, and human-centered design.

A Digital Bridge for One-Third of the Nation

One-third of Albania’s citizens live outside the country—most in Italy, Greece, and Germany—and for decades faced immense barriers to participation: complex paperwork, poor consular coordination, and inconsistent voter lists. As Hoxha, Josifi, and Lila note, the introduction of the electronic voter registration (e-registration) platform marked “a major milestone in Albania’s ongoing efforts to modernize its electoral infrastructure and expand civic participation beyond national borders.”

The Central Election Commission (CEC) developed the system to operate through three channels—a desktop web portal, a native mobile application, and a mobile-friendly web version—ensuring inclusivity across age groups, devices, and internet conditions. Statistical data from the study revealed that nearly 80 percent of registrants completed the process using mobile devices, underscoring what the authors describe as “the emergence of mobile-first democracy.”

Biometric Security Plus Inclusivity

What set Albania’s approach apart was the integration of cutting-edge biometric technology with responsive human oversight. The system employed a three-factor authentication process—password, one-time passcode (OTP), and real-time facial recognition verified against the National Civil Registry—anchored on ISO/IEC 19794-5 biometric standards. This multi-layered authentication, as detailed in the paper, “safeguarded the registration workflow against impersonation, unauthorized access, and automated attacks.”

At the same time, the CEC established a 24/7 multilingual support team accessible via phone, email, WhatsApp, and chatbot. Staff worked in rotating shifts until 2 a.m., verifying applications within an average of three days. If errors were found, applicants were allowed to correct and reapply—striking, as the authors emphasize, “the right balance between efficiency and empathy.”

A Model of Democratic Modernization

The results were transformative. According to Hoxha, Josifi, and Lila, a total of 245,935 diaspora voters successfully registered—an unprecedented expansion of Albania’s electorate. The system’s reliability, accessibility, and compliance with GDPR and national data laws demonstrated that technological modernization need not come at the expense of democratic integrity.

Beyond its technical success, the initiative carried profound symbolic weight: it restored a sense of belonging to citizens long excluded from the political life of their homeland. It showed that digital transformation, when paired with transparency and accountability, can rebuild trust in institutions—something sorely needed in many post-transition democracies.

Blueprint for the Balkans

Albania’s experience offers a pragmatic blueprint for other Balkan states such as North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Each faces similar challenges: large diasporas, administrative bottlenecks, and waning voter confidence. Yet as the paper demonstrates, these challenges are not immutable—they are design problems waiting for digital solutions.

A region-wide embrace of secure, biometric e-registration could yield multiple dividends: enhanced electoral integrity, expanded participation, and a tangible step toward consolidating democracy in Southeast Europe. As the authors conclude, Albania’s case illustrates that “leveraging technology to expand voter engagement is not merely a technical innovation—it is an act of democratic renewal.”

Albania’s model reminds the Balkans that inclusion is the ultimate test of democracy. And in 2025, through code, cloud, and commitment, Albania passed that test with distinction.

Balancing Security, Transparency, and Efficiency: The Belgian E-Voting Blueprint

The electronic voting system being used in Flanders is emerging as one of Europe’s enduring and most thoughtfully designed ventures in digital democracy. Over three election cycles, 2012, 2018, and 2024, Flanders has developed and refined an offline voting system that balances technological efficiency with the bedrock principles of security and transparency. The model proves digitalization, when properly governed, can strengthen public trust.

According to a paper presented by election technologist Jan Coudron at the recent E-Vote ID Conference in France, the system is built on the idea of verifiable paper trail, which anchors every digital ballot in a physical record.

After voters make their selection on the touchscreen, the machine prints a paper ballot showing both the readable choices and a QR code that encodes the same information. The voter can then visually confirm their vote before depositing the printout into a sealed ballot box. This ensures that each electronic vote has a tangible, auditable counterpart—bridging the gap between digital efficiency and paper-based trust.

History

Belgium’s foray into e-voting began in the early 1990s with the Digivote and Jites systems, which relied on magnetic cards. While these early efforts demonstrated technical potential, concerns about transparency, auditability, and long-term reliability soon surfaced.

In response, a 2007 study called BeVoting, authored by a consortium of seven Belgian universities—redefined the nation’s approach around three core principles: verifiability, security, and offline operation.

By 2012, Flanders rolled out the “enhanced paper voting” system, combining touchscreen convenience with a voter-verifiable paper trail. Over the next decade, the model steadily expanded. By 2024, it covered about 62% of Flemish voters across 159 municipalities—transforming what began as a limited pilot into a core feature of regional democracy.

Firm legal foundations

The Flemish model is grounded on a robust legal and institutional framework. Two decrees—the Local and Provincial Electoral Decree (2011) and the Digital Electoral Decree (2012)—establish strict rules for system design, data management, and verification procedures. Oversight is vested in an independent College of Experts appointed by the Flemish Parliament, complemented by certified evaluators who audit hardware and software integrity before and after each election.

The Flemish platform operates entirely offline. Votes are recorded locally, printed on paper, and stored both digitally and physically. Encrypted data copies are saved on multiple USB drives, while every stage—from system setup to result transmission—is sealed, hashed, and logged for verification. This “island architecture” drastically reduces cyberattack surfaces while maintaining the speed and reliability expected from digital processes.

Early learnings

The 2012 rollout surfaced several lessons: compressed preparation timelines, uneven staff training, and interface issues like accidental double taps. However, subsequent evaluations in 2018 and 2024 recorded marked improvement. Manuals were rewritten in clearer, visual formats; polling officers received better training; and the interface was redesigned for clarity and accessibility. By 2024, 94% of municipal coordinators reported satisfaction with the system, praising its stability, accuracy, and ease of use.

Tangible improvements

Electronic voting has transformed election logistics in Flanders. Where manual counting once consumed days, complete municipal results now arrive within hours. In the 2024 elections, polls closed at 3 p.m., and full results were ready by 7 p.m. The system also reduced manpower requirements by an estimated 10,000 staff compared with manual counting. Yet the emphasis on transparency never diminished—each digital tally remains verifiable against its corresponding paper ballot, ensuring that efficiency does not come at the cost of trust.

Ensuring long-term gains

With the current equipment contracts expiring in 2027, Flanders now faces critical policy decisions: whether to upgrade, extend, or transition to new platforms. Considerations include system cost, accessibility for voters with disabilities, sustainability of hardware, and potential integration with national digital identity programs. Whatever direction policymakers choose, maintaining the delicate balance among security, transparency, and efficiency will remain the touchstone of the next phase.

Flanders’ offline e-voting model demonstrates that democratic innovation is not defined by speed or modernity alone—it is defined by verifiable trust. By keeping the process auditable, offline, and under independent oversight, Belgium has shown that technology can reinforce rather than compromise electoral integrity.

The Flemish experience stands as a measured, mature blueprint for resilient digital democracy.