The importance of biometric authentication today

Biometric authentication strengthens the security of e-voting
(Photo Smartmatic)

“One voter, one vote” is a principle central to the preservation of democracy. Based on it, governments have strived to improve their electoral systems. With the advent of electoral technology, biometric authentication has become a solution that prevents identity theft and vote stuffing. This system has already been used in Venezuela with excellent results, and it could be employed as well in the US.

For the past decade, Venezuela has been at the cutting edge of electoral technology and has continued to gain the admiration of the world with the implementation of new tools to reinforce its advantages. The technology used by the Latin American country at the presidential election this year guaranteed that the ballots cast reflected the intent of each real citizen who attended the polling stations. With the Integrated Authentication System (SAI), each voter had to be identified through a fingerprint scan in order to activate the machine and exert his or her right to suffrage. The procedure was always explained to each and every voter by a delegate from the polling station, and there were extensive drills before the elections to get citizens accustomed to the use of the machine.

Biometric authentication is not a terribly complex procedure, and yet it strengthens the security of e-voting and safeguards its transparency. As we’ve stated in previous posts, the simplest benefit of biometric identification is that it helps prevent dead people from voting, which is the oldest form of identity theft. For this reason, other countries have also begun to think about implementing this form of technology. In the US, the debate is on.

In spite of the recurring cases of fraud in US elections, some political sectors are convinced that requiring an ID at the polling station is equivalent to disenfranchising the minorities, who represent a significant portion of the voting population. As discussed here, it all boils down to a problem of balance between access and integrity. Are governments meant to grant access to suffrage to as many people as possible, even if many of these people will not be alive or even real when they are not required to confirm their identity in order to vote? If so, how can countries guarantee their citizens that their intent is being reflected in the results of their elections? How could the unrestricted access to vote—and fraud—aid in the construction and preservation of democracy?

Biometric authentication is not meant to be a weapon to disenfranchise citizens. On the contrary, it is a tool to give citizens the certainty and relief that it is their real voice that is being heard when election results are revealed. Now that Venezuelan elections using biometric authentication have been carried out with positive results, the US might want to look up how simple yet effective voter identity authentication has been.

Venezuela pulls it through

Photo: (AP /Fernando Llano)

Last Sunday (October 7, 2012) Venezuela held a presidential election featuring six candidates. Since the very beginnings of the official campaign, three months ago, the voters’ intent was polarized towards two contenders, the incumbent President Hugo Chavez Frias, and Henrique Capriles Radonski, representing the Coalition for Democratic Unity (Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, MUD).

In spite of a heated campaign, which included radically contrasting proposals, and even physical violence between the opposing sides, the election ran smoothly and voters were able to cast votes in a peaceful and civic environment. Moreover, official results were published only minutes after last precinct closed. Around 10 pm, on Election Day, Hugo Chavez was declared winner with approximately 54% of the votes, and immediately after, Henrique Capriles conceded the defeat and congratulated the re-elected President.

Besides the fact that President Chavez, and his 14-year revolution, were in for review, the Venezuelan election caught the attention world-wide as the inclusion of the biometric identification system that initiates the voting session, made of this, the first end-to-end automated national election ever. The robust platform used in Venezuela comprised 39.018 Smartmatic voting machines, with its corresponding electronic ballot and fingerprint reader device. Also, the hardware was complemented with software solutions to create electoral instruments, monitor the development on Election Day, and consolidate and publish results.

In our opinion, the transparency, efficiency and accuracy of the robust automated platform used, played a key role in shielding the vote of Venezuelans, and providing uncontested results. All parties involved in the process participated in the seventeen audits and five test carried out prior to the event. Above all the security features the system includes, the voting machines provide a paper trail record for post electoral audits. Each voter has the possibility to verify his/her vote is recorded accurately through the printed version of the vote. Also, after polling stations closed, citizens and authorities audited approximately 53% of the machines by comparing the electronic results with the paper trails deposited in the ballot boxes. In the US, voting advocates are fighting to achieve the audit of 3%-5%, this gives you an idea of how audited the results are. With such level of scrutiny possible, there was little room for shenanigans.

During the months preceding the elections, the traditional Venezuelan opinion research firms, forecasted contrasting results. A few weeks before the election, both sides were very confident of their victory. However, as with every election, the results favored only one side. The audits performed to approximately 15,000 voting machines after polls closed confirmed the accuracy of results in 100%. Both, the digital results coincided with the paper trails. The audit mechanisms gave no room for interpretation.

In these elections, automation proved to be the way to go when political and social stability at stake.

Benefits of electronic poll books

SAI will eliminate any possibility of double voting or that third parties
might vote by stealing the identity of registered voters (Image Smartmatic)

As technology continues to improve our overall life quality by automating processes related to all aspects of our lives, one specific development is consistently becoming more relevant and essential to perform even the simplest task: biometric authentication. From border security, to banking, and even more recently, voting, biometrics are being successfully applied to different industries. In the electoral arena, which is the main interest of this blog, biometrics is also making possible some ground-breaking transformations.

We've all heard numerous times the old adagio: every vote counts. Well, that can only be asserted when authorities succeed in ensuring that every citizen who wants to express his opinion casts a vote, and that every cast vote is properly accounted for.

The managing of poll books is an area where Biometrics is starting to play a key role. Normally, and in order be given access to cast a vote, voters go through a process of authentication, which involves handing an ID to the poll station worker so they can confirm that the person in the polling station is in fact eligible to cast a vote in that precinct. During this process, and for decades, all sort of irregularities such as double voting and impersonation have occurred. Biometrics are making it impossible for fraudsters to actually impersonate another voter and in some cases, it is avoiding unscrupulous voters to cast more votes than allowed.

A solution to eradicate the problems regarding voter authentication is being implemented in Venezuela. Developed by Smartmatic, the Integrated Authentication System (SAI for its acronym in Spanish) uses the voters' biometric authentication (through fingerprint scanning) to verify the identity of the voter and allow him or her to cast their vote. The device receives each voter's ID number and fingerprint, and validates this data against the electoral roll. Only a valid identity from someone who has not previously voted, and is in fact eligible to vote, will activate the voting machine. This prevents identity theft and double voting, and guarantees the One Elector = One Vote principle. The system is a step forward from the automated electoral rolls being implemented in countries like Ghana and Cameroon.

Governments have an enormous responsibility towards their citizens and the overall democratic system when it comes to election administration. They must offer effective tools and technologies to ensure maximum levels of transparency and efficiency. Given the latest developments, biometric authentication is the next logical step to follow when election integrity is at stake. A manual poll book simply does not offer the levels of security and reliability that elections need. The example Venezuela is setting by using technologies like SAI, needs to be followed as it will shield the right to vote of the Venezuelan electorate.

Biometrics on Elections Day

During the last decade, the increasing need for security against terrorist activity, illegal immigration, sophisticated crimes, and financial frauds propelled the biometric technology market into unprecedented levels of growth. According to the research company Frost and Sullivan, the market earned revenues were $ 4.494 billion in 2010 and will reach $14.685 billion in 2019. At the present moment, the annual growth rate is approximately 19%.

This remarkable success has brought an expansion of biometrics applications to a wide array of industries. Electoral authorities, always interested in the newest developments in technology to increase transparency levels, are using it to improve registers. Fingerprint, iris, voice and face recognition are all human patterns that, if properly used, can contribute enormously to build more accurate registers and avoid the duplications of citizens ID's typically found in public databases.

Another use of biometrics that is making its way into the electoral scene is fingerprint identification at the polling stations on Election Day. A top-notch biometric equipment can keep track of individuals who have voted and notify authorities in real time if a person is trying to vote again with the same or another ID.

Using biometrics at the polling station during Election Day will immediately eliminate one of the oldest forms of electoral frauds, dead people voting. "Zombies" can vote when the name of a deceased person remains on a state's official list of registered voters and a living person fraudulently casts a ballot in that name. Having dead people voting is not an endemic problem of developing nations. South Carolina's Attorney General, Alan Wilson, claimed that 953 ballots were cast by "people listed as dead" in the recent Republican primary elections held in January, 2012.

Although this new use is not widespread yet, it is a promising source of income for the thriving industry of biometrics. Venezuela, a country that has embraced all advantages technology provides to guarantee transparent elections, will be using a biometric identification system on Election Day for the next Presidential elections to be held on October 7th, 2012. The Sistema de Autenticación Integral, SAI (Integral Authentication System), developed by Smartmatic, will guarantee that the person voting is the same person registered to vote.

In spite of all progress made with the dissemination of best practices in the administration of elections, guaranteeing the One Voter One Vote principle is still a challenge that many countries are yet to conquer. Hopefully biometric technology will soon be accessible to all nations procuring satisfactory levels of transparency.