The US elections technology oligopoly

 

Last week we learned from the Wall Street Journal that “Election machines used in more than half of U.S. states carry a flaw disclosed more than a decade ago that makes them vulnerable to a cyberattack”. A startling development, considering that the midterms are around the corner, and that China has allegedly joined the list of foreign powers trying to meddle in US elections.

Although the reason why a flaw of this magnitude is still present is manifold, recent studies point at the concentrated structure of the industry as one of the main causes for the poor state of the US election infrastructure.

In 2017, a Penn Wharton professor, Lorin Hitt, and a team of six students published a report titled “The Business of Voting”. According to their findings, “the industry is dominated by three firms that are moderate in size and neither publicly nor independently held, limiting the amount of information available in the public domain about their operations and financial performance. Meanwhile, the customer base is highly fragmented, with election technology decision-making dispersed across more than 10,000 county election officials.”

The three firms in question -Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Dominion Voting Systems, and Hart Intercivic- control approximately 92% of the voting machines used in the US. The existence of an oligopoly which controls US elections is undoubtedly a problem that needs to be addressed. 

As pointed out in the Wharton study, the lack of competitiveness leads to an inefficient market.  “First, the companies can exert their market power to lock-in clients”.  And second, “the industry’s high degree of concentration reduces investment in making voting machines more secure. The three incumbent companies can easily cooperate in carving up the existing market. And little outside competition, according to the authors of the report, means “limited incentives for innovation”.

The inefficiencies of this oligopoly have become evident in recent weeks.

On September 26, the city of Chicago awarded a 10-year contract for approximately $31 million to Dominion Voting Systems. The decision to purchase technology from the Canadian-based company was made months ago following a public bidding, yet the acquisition of technology is now being questioned. ES&S, the largest manufacturer in the country, filed a lawsuit against the county and the office of its chief procurement officer on September 25. According to ES&S, the “proposed voting system was not compliant with Illinois law, and likewise could not meet the requirements [of the request for proposals], because it had not been certified by the Illinois State Board of Elections.”

A similar episode is unfolding in Louisiana where ES&S is accusing state officials of favoring Dominion during the bidding process. In June, it was revealed that ES&S “had coaxed state and local elections officials —including South Carolina's election chief— to serve on an “advisory board” that gathers twice annually for company-sponsored conferences for at least nine years.”

Ethics experts have questioned this practice, labeling it as potentially corrupt. “This is a massive promotional opportunity for ES&S,” said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel for the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C. “It’s highly inappropriate for any election official to be accepting anything of value from a primary contractor. It shocks the conscience … I think it compromises their integrity.”

To cope with the shortcomings of this inefficient market, the Penn Wharton study recommends:

• Buyer coalitions, which can give jurisdictions greater bargaining power for getting vendors to provide systems that are both better priced and more customized to their needs;
• Open source technology, which proponents believe may catalyze the development of new competitive markets in voting systems solutions;
• Modified certification processes, to support a move to modular voting systems built from less expensive commercial off

It is time to take action.

E-voting in Southeast Asia is growing stronger

In our digital-driven world, technological innovation has become an essential pillar to carry out routine activities as well as to stay updated and at par with others. Elections are one of the many areas where some countries are reaping the benefits technology has to offer.

Three examples in the election field are the registration of voters, the adoption of electronic voting machines, and the use of digital platforms to share and inform election details to stakeholders via SMS, emails, or social networks.

Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and Singapore currently are global technology hubs. Yet, they have not taken full advantage of it to make election processes easier, more robust, and public friendlier.

Most South Asians[1] and Southeast Asians[2] have historically relied on the traditional methods of elections, i.e. with limited use of technology, and they continue to do so. Voters still must go through dated registration and voting processes, including long queues to manually cast their ballots, and waiting days -or weeks- to get official election results.

India and The Philippines

India in Southern Asia and The Philippines in Southeast Asia, however, have led the train of change on e-voting. For the last decade, voters in both countries have been casting ballots through electronic voting machines, with significant and positive results for Election management bodies (EMB) regarding ease of use, speediness, and efficiency of the voting technology.

According to a recent paper: Independent Electoral Commissions (IECs) for Inclusive, Honest, Orderly, and Peaceful Elections presented at the 25th World Congress of Political Science (July 2018), “The automation of elections in the Philippines despite the numerous organizational and technical issues, had an overall positive effect on public trust in the voting process, and public confidence in the COMELEC. The adoption of an automated election system also triggered institutional changes and improvements in the COMELEC.”

Other countries in the region are following The Philippines and India, and they are starting procedures to upgrade and trial new election technologies. Electronic voting pilots have taken place in Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Mongolia. While Biometric voting registration has been adopted in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Nepal.

Social networks help

Let us not forget social media is also inducing voting consciously in the region to a vast extent. People in Southeast Asia are using these networks to convey an array of ideas and perspectives diluting knowledge for others.

Social platforms are acting as a forum to discuss the pros and cons of a candidate or a party contesting elections, helping leaders or candidates to connect with the public, and grasp a trend of public needs and expectations.

Therefore, even if countries in Southern and Southeast Asia are not widely benefitting from election technology just yet, there are some leading examples and several domains in which digital transformation is smoothing the election cycles.

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[1] Current territories of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka form South Asia.

[2] Current territories of Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam form Southeast Asia.

New votings apps seen to increase turnout

For decades, election authorities in the U.S. have been puzzled over the dwindling number of people turning out for elections. Whether the reason is lack of interest, or lack of access to polling centers, or some other impediment, low voter turnout is proving to be such a pain point that it has received the attention of various sectors, even the developer community.

Recently, several innovative mobile applications have been released that aim to smooth the voter registration process. One such notable app is the appropriately-named Register to Vote which allows citizens in California, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Arizona, Colorado, and Massachusetts to register simply by scanning their state IDs.  It promises to complete the whole process in thirty seconds. The app’s most obvious benefit is the elimination of the cumbersome step of having to physically go to a registration to sign up.

Another app takes the chatbot approach in helping voters register.  HelloVote allows voters simply enter their mobile phone number on this site, or text HELLO to 384–387, and the app takes them through the filling out the voter registration form for their state.  Some states allow direct electronic submissions while some states require voters to fill out a form that HelloVote will send back via via email or snail mail for later submission to the local electoral body.

It’s not as if anyone is likely to forget when Election Day is. But sometimes little nudge helps in to actually go out and cast that vote. TurboVote provides that impetus by sending text and email reminders. Voters get a notification the day before election day complete with ballot information and information on the nearest polling center.   What’s even more interesting is the TurboVote Challenge, which get top companies and leading organizations into a a nonpartisan advocacy to increase voter participation.

Reversing the voter turnout downtrend is a tall order yet innovation could provide just the needed spark to get voters trooping back to the polling centers.

Denmark ranks first in ICT and second in e-Government

Each year, the Digital Agenda commission of the European Union offers figures that let people gauge the advances and imbalances countries show regarding the performance of their Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). 

This year Denmark  ranked first in ICT use, according to the average global ranking of the Digital Economic and Society Index (DESI) published by the EU. 

The European Union started the Europe 2020 growth strategy, which has five targets for growth attainable by means of seven “flagship initiatives”. One of these is the Digital Agenda, which defines the route European nations must follow to meet their objectives for 2020.  The DESI gauges the advances in the digital domain. 

Denmark stands out on account of their Internet use, their integration of digital technology, and their use of public digital services (e-Government).

The country’s performance is especially strong in e-Government. It has been at the vanguard of digital public services for years; in 2015 it ranked first, and it slipped to second place this year.  

Despite this good performance, authorities do not seem to be completely satisfied, and in order to go back to number one, Denmark has designed a new electronic management strategy (2016-2020). Despite not being published yet, we know this strategy aims to strengthen their leadership in the Public Digitization Service, which from 2011 to 2015 was highly ambitious and successful. 

Estonia, which surpasses Denmark, developed in 2015 an Internet voting system that has allowed Estonians to vote remotely from any location.    

This electoral technology has given Estonia the capacity to implement digital solutions to empower their citizens, and they have become a worldwide reference when it comes to elections, turnout and digital governance. 

India looks at E-governance to improve education

In its bid to improve overall performance of learning institutions, the Indian government has outfitted 1,200 central schools in New Delhi with e-governance technology. 

Through this program, activities of both the students and the teachers will be monitored to increase productivity and achieve a more efficient administration. Officials of the schools are optimistic that the e-governance program can help improve performance of students, teachers, and school administrators.

Already, some educators are reporting such expected improvements. Suresh Singh, a principal in Kendriya Vidyalaya in South Delhi, has credited the adoption of the e-governance system with minimizing the drudgery of administration allowing him to teach more.

“Now I am more of a teacher,” Singh says, “less of an administrator”. Mathematics teacher Alka Sharma from Ahlcon International School in East Delhi shares the same optimism. Digital intervention lessens administrative burden on teaching staff, enabling them to focus more on educating than doing paper work.

E-governance has clearly brought an effective tool to teachers, who are also looking at leveraging technology to improve student engagement through customized tutorials, better pedagogy, which in turn, develops an ideal teaching-learning atmosphere.

The government tapped MGRM Net Ltd, an IT company to implement the project. MGRM’s senior vice-president Partha Mohanty said his company seeks to bring the e-governance program to private and government schools as both require an education system that observes “transparency, accountability, improved efficiency and universal access to information”.

For this specific purpose, the e-governance is the solution he believes will bring a remarkable difference. Numerous domestic and international studies have revealed quality issues with India’s education sector, making it the target of a reform initiative.

The Union Human Resource Development Ministry has also considered the same e-Government technology through its “shaala darpan” system, an ICT program that provides mobile access to parents of students of government and government-aided schools.

With this technology, parents can view updates on their child’s progress. Observers are optimistic that integrating “shaala darpan” with e-governance technology would bring about outstanding results in terms of student engagement, assessment and gap analysis, and even school infrastructure.

Origins of leading electronic voting companies

Technology has been the starting point for several leading companies in the world seeking to innovate in the elections, with the firm intention of strengthening democracy and offering citizens solutions to participate in the electoral processes.

The Philippines, India, the United States, Belgium and Estonia have benefited from electronic voting technology to make their way on the road to elections automation and digital democracy.

The governments of those nations have seen these technology companies as allies to modernize their democratic processes. Indra Company, Smartmatic, Scytl, and Election Systems & Software (ES & S), leading companies in the field of elections.

Having participated in elections around the world, these companies face day by day detractors who seek to generate controversies about their origins and the place where they were founded, with the simple intention of distorting or generating opinion arrays that mitigate the confidence in the election results.

Although its founding countries are clearly established: Indra Company and Scytl are of Spanish origin with their headquarters in the same country, ES & S was founded and operates in the United States, as well as Smartmatic which was registered in Delaware, United States and currently has its Headquarters in London, on several occasions have been awarded other origins based on the countries where they have held elections; or the nationality of its founders.

From this issue, it is clear that this type of controversy is only generated with a main objective: to divert attention from issues that are important for democracy and the social development of countries, citizen participation and the power voters have to decide who will be in their governments.