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| Source: http://www.globalpost.com |
After the
2000 voting chads scandal in Florida, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA)
promoted better practices in election administration and e-voting became the
preferred voting method across most counties in the US. However, experimenting
with digital-recording
electronic (DRE) did not yield the expected results in many counties
as much of the technology available at the time did not meet minimum quality
standards. In practice, voting numbers did not match up to the actual number of
voters, and some people reported votes “flipping” as they submitted their
ticket. A few years after HAVA´s signing into a law (2002), DRE's became
largely perceived as unreliable.
By the
year 2006, and in light of the problems DREs faced, the US electoral commissions
began opting for the optical-scanners at precincts to scan paper ballots. While
the technology still presented many issues, like security flaws in tabulation
and accessibility problems, at least the paper ballots offered a chance for
counting or possible recounting, increasing voter confidence.
The
evolution of the preferences of electoral commissions in the US has had a
unique pattern. Other countries are much more homogeneous in their use of
voting technology. Since the day Brasil, India, and Belgium began automating
their elections, they have used DRE sytsems. Canada, Mongolia, and the Philippines, use precinct count optical
scanners.
Now, recent
developments in the industry have put DREs back in the radar of those
commissions planning to introduce technology based voting solutions. Under the
concept of End to End E-voting, a new generation of voting machines have
emerged. End-to-end auditable voting systems are those
with strong tamper resistance and stringent integrity procedures. The new breed
of DREs come with a printer which provides the voter with an opportunity to
attest his/her vote is recorded properly.
Since
2004 Venezuela has been using an End to End E-voting solution that prints
voting vouchers. More than twelve national elections, certified by experts in
the field put this South American nation in the forefront of election
automation. During the recent 2013 Presidential
elections held in April, more than 80 percent of eligible voters turned out to
vote. Additionally, the election result was certified after a challenge and total
recount of the vote, which a 100% accuracy rate.
End-to-end implementation will
lead to greater transparency, increased accuracy, greater voter confidence and
turnout. Through the use of continual auditing, careful selection of field
personnel, cryptographic builds, appropriate telecommunications and
infrastructure, along with electoral accuracy tests and a final wrap-up audit;
true and accurate results will be quickly certified. Peru, Colombia, Argentina,
Georgia, are some of the nations in line to adopt E2E solutions.
