South Africa Votes mobile app keeps voters informed

Source: mlive.com

While several other countries around the world have had the luxury of enjoying an open democracy for a number of generations already, the democracy in South Africa is still in its relative infancy. The fifth election in the nation was held on May 7 of this year and it was the first election held in South Africa since the death of Nelson Mandela. There is still much to be learned and the system still has a lot of room to grow, mature and improve.

As the concept of an open democracy with universal adult suffrage is still relatively new to the people of South Africa, seeing how apartheid only ended in 1994, the Mail & Guardian launched the SA Votes mobile app leading up to the May election. Although the app didn't have any direct impact on how the election was run or the technology that was used in creating and maintaining the voter list, recording and tabulating ballots, or so forth, it did help to add an important dose of technology and modernity into the South African system.

Made available both as an Android app and an iOS app, SA Votes strove to provide the people of South Africa and all interested people around the world with a “constantly updated source for quality news articles, opinion pieces, videos and slideshows about the election.” The content was curated by the Mail & Guardian and the app allowed users to easily access, comment and share the content from the app to their friends.

It is important to have a reliable and secure infrastructure in place for any general election and the elections in South Africa will continue to improve, but the first goal is to educate and inform the public. An informed electorate is better able to make educated decisions about who should get their vote, rather than basing their voting decisions on misinformation and propaganda. “We hope voters will use the app to arm themselves with the knowledge they need to vote responsibly,” said M&G Editor-in-Chief Chris Roper.

The 2014 general election in South Africa was notable for a number of reasons. It not only continues the young tradition of democracy in the country, but it is also the first election in which the “born-free” generation were able to cast their ballot. These are the young voters who were born after the 1994 general election when the apartheid era ended in South Africa. The number of total registered voters was encouraging; 80.5% of the 31.4 million eligible voters were registered ahead of the election, including 2.3 million new voters. An additional 26,000 international voters were also registered to cast their ballot from abroad, mostly from London, Dubai and Canberra.

While it can never be accurately determined how much of an impact the SA Votes app had on the outcome of the election, it does point toward the increasing use of technology in the country and perhaps the increased use of technology in the actual administration of future elections. The African National Congress (ANC) party won the National Assembly election with a majority vote of 62.1%, which is slightly lower than the 65.9% it achieved in the 2009 election. Opinion polls conducted by Ipsos Pulse of the People and Sunday Times leading up to the May election were in line with the final result.

People from more developed countries like Canada and France have come to take public information and public scrutiny for granted. It is assumed that the electorate can be reasonably educated and informed about the issues. In a younger democracy like South Africa, this may not have always been the case. The introduction of the SA Votes mobile app is one step toward having a more educated and informed electorate, one that will continue to be better able to make their voting decisions more wisely. 

The Estonian I-voting system in a nutshell

An Estonian voter inserts her ID card for authentication before voting

The immense possibilities that the Internet offers to enhance efficiency in election administration has made Internet voting one of the hottest topics in the world of elections today. And it couldn’t be otherwise, in the midst of the cyber revolution we are living in.

Since 2005, Estonia has been at the world-wide forefront of I-voting. It has carried six national elections (three local, two parliamentary, and one for the European Parliament) in which voters have had the option to either cast a ballot at a polling station using paper and pencil, or to vote remotely using an Internet-based platform.

So far, the success of the system has been evident. No significant or credible hacking or fraud accusations have been made, and the number of I-voters continues to grow sharply as the natural barriers to the adoption of any new technology fade away. In the first elections with optional I-voting (2005), 10,000 people cast a vote remotely. By 2011, that number had grown to 140,000– an approximate 24% of the voting population. Authorities are confident that this technology will continue to gain steam in the near future.

In each election, paper and pencil voting begins 13 days prior to Election Day in certain designated early voting polling stations. Voters can also wait until Election Day and cast a ballot in their neighboring precinct. In addition to the traditional method, casting an I-vote is available for a period of 7 days spanning from the 10th day until the 4th day prior to E-day.

The I-voting process has a similar scheme to that of any traditional voting process. Voter authentication, a crucial first step to avoid voter impersonation, can be done through different means: an ID card (National ID card), a Digital ID (a document identifying a person in electronic environments and involving digital signatures), or a mobile-ID (system based on the SIM card of a phone acting as an ID card and a card reader).

Once the identity of the voter has been authenticated, the voter downloads the voting application from the site www.valimised.ee. After the identity of the voter has been also validated via PIN, the voting process begins. The voter proceeds to choose options and then confirms his/her choices. A notice stating that the vote has been accepted is sent to the voter.

In order to continue improving the service, Estonia is working on a system called Verification of the I-votes. The idea is to detect if any malware has affected the computer used by the voter, and if that malware could have compromised or even changed the vote. The system will also allow voters to verify their I-votes with a smart device (mobile phone or a tablet) equipped with a camera and Internet connection. To learn more about the verification, click here.

Security has always been a concern when it comes to electronic voting. In consequence, different security mechanisms have been put in place to safeguard the I-vote. The vote is encrypted with the most advanced encrypting algorithms available. Also, the voter’s personal data is digitally signed and added to the encrypted vote prior to transmission.

Before processing voting results in the evening of Election Day, the encrypted votes and the digital signatures (i.e. data identifying the voter) are separated to guarantee the secrecy of the vote. Then anonymous I-votes are accepted and counted. The system accepts votes only if they are not connected to personal data. 

A frequently asked question when debates on I-voting begin is -How can you guarantee that the person casting a vote at home is doing so freely?

To mitigate voter coercion, voters are allowed to change their electronic vote by voting as many times as they please. Only their last vote is counted. The voter has the option to log into the electronic voting system again while I-voting is available, or to head to a polling station and cast a vote in person on Election Day.

For sure, Estonia will continue to lead the way in online voting for some time. Its government has been committed to better governance through technology for decades, and in view of the results, it has all the incentives to continue doing so. Paperless cabinet meetings, e-voting, e-health, e-schools, are just some of the initiatives giving this small European nation a very relevant position in the cyber revolution.

E-voting excels in Ecuador

Santo Domingo used technology
provided by Smartmatic. Image: El Comercio

Ecuador ran three electronic voting pilots yesterday as voters elected 5,651 regional offices in the 2014 sectional elections. 

In order to implement these technologies, the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE), Ecuador´s highest electoral office, reached agreements with electoral commissions from Venezuela, Russia and Argentina. Their experience in election automation proved key for the success of the project.

Two of the voting pilots -in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and Azuay- were binding. In La Morita, only 194 voters cast their vote in an experimental pilot using Russian technology. 

Smartmatic, a London based company, provided voting technology and services to conduct the entire process in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas. This pilot ran smoothly. Only one hour after polls closed authorities had in their possession official results. For the voters, voting was trouble -free. They used touch screen voting machines which provide a physical vote receipt via a built-in printer. The company offered training, running a support center, preparing, deploying and collecting the electronic electoral kits, among other services. 

In total, in Santo Domingo, 1,221 voting machines were deployed in 53 polling centers to receive 326.932 registered voters. Among the technologies used in the pilot, this was the only 100% automated and verifiable voting experience in the pilot. 

In Azuay, the CNE of Ecuador managed the entire voting process. However, to capture the intent of the voters, they had Magic Software Argentina provide 3,022 voting machines. Some polling centers presented problems with this technology. In the Canton Ponce Enriquez , the voting had to be suspended  because the voting machines had not been properly configured. Authorities will announce today when the voting will be resumed.  

The Russian technology deployed in La Morita, Pichincha province, comprised only 4 Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines. 2 were intended for voters, one for training and one was kept for contingency purposes. Only 194 voters used this technology. 

In spite of the glitches in Azuay, the pilots can be considered successful. Hopefully, after this positive experience, Ecuador will move to full implementation in the near future.

Thailand to hold early elections in a bid to defuse tension

Tumultous is one word that has often been used to describe Thailand’s political landscape. To most observers, the Asian country has indeed experienced one too many upheavals for comfort. Subjected to the absolute rule of kings for centuries, Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932 when the country’s elite staged a “democratic revolution.”

Yet the change in the form of government did little to quell the restiveness. Shortly thereafter, Thailand has been wracked with numerous coups, which often left the country under the rule of juntas and resulted to seventeen charter changes.

The instability came to a head last year, when anti-government forces led a series of occasionally-violent protests against Yingluck Shinawatra, the country’s first female Prime Minister and sister to exiled ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra.

In hopes of easing the rapidly escalating tension, the Prime Minister has called for early elections on February 2. The Election Commission has said that it is ready for Election Day, where the country’s estimated 46 million voters are set to elect 480 members of the House of Representatives. 

Yet things are never that easy in this deeply-divided country. The main opposition Democrat Party has said that it will boycott the polls. The party had demanded that the PM resign ahead of the elections and that an interim government be installed to effect reforms. The same position is being noisily advocated by protesters, which had been massing in crowds of as large as 150,000 warm bodies in the almost-weekly rallies since October. 

Opponents of the Shinawatras, which mostly come from the educated middle and upper class as well as the business sector, are calling to reboot Thai society to stamp out the culture of corruption that they believe is driving away business and hampering the development of the country

Yet the appeal has fallen on deaf ears as Yingluck has already declared that the polls will proceed despite the planned boycott. Instead, she unveiled her own plan to ensure reforms which involves candidates taking an oath to call for the creation of a reform council right after being sworn into office. Her suggestion also specifies that the reform council be made up of members representing a broad spectrum of sectors at local and national levels.

The Colombian race for election automation

Bogotá. Photo: Miguel Vaca

A very important deadline is coming up in the Colombian electoral calendar: by 2014, e-voting should have been implemented for the upcoming Senate and House of Representatives elections. However, so little has been done to that end, that the chance of meeting the goal is slim.

For many Colombians, the fact that their government set a deadline for the implementation of e-voting might come off as a surprise. This is because there is not enough information about this project available to the public, as it seems to have been left stagnant by a lack of budget stemming from the disinterest shown by the central government so far. However, the National Registrar, Carlos Ariel Sánchez, stated that e-voting is necessary to simplify the country’s complex multiple election system used to elect senators, house representatives, and members of the City Council of Bogotá.

At least some steps have been taken to advance the project, though. In recent days, the National Registrar presented three options to the Electronic Voting Advisory Commission for the potential method to be adopted: paper ballots with automatic scrutiny, touchscreen devices with no vote receipt, and touchscreen devices with vote receipt. The commission will evaluate the three models in terms of their reliability, accessibility, precision, and auditability. It goes without saying that in terms of voting machines, those that emit printed voting receipts will always be preferable to those that don’t. According to Barbara Simons, member of the Election Assistance Commission Board of Advisors, all computers used in an election must be audited, and for that reason “there must always be physical records [of the ballots cast electronically], that is, paper receipts.”

E-voting is ideal for multiple elections, as it enables the display of the equivalent of several paper ballots on a single touchscreen, thus reducing costs and making it easier for voters to participate. In fact, it has already proven successful in different countries, even recently. Therefore, it would be absolutely beneficial for the Colombian authorities to step up their game and raise the level of importance of e-voting in their agenda and budget.

It is highly plausible that Colombia will delay the implementation of e-voting, but this is preferable to hastening the process just to meet the deadline, which can lead to completely undesirable results. As for now, the South American country is already implementing biometric authentication in its upcoming elections, and pilot tests for voting machines will be held during political parties’ internal referenda. Fortunately, it seems the road to automation for Colombia has not been completely forsaken, after all.