Post-coup Maldives optimistic on e-voting

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The island paradise of Maldives was rocked early this year by a political upheaval which forced its president Mohamed Nashed to resign.  The interim government took over amid extreme restiveness from the general populace and from the camp of the ex-president.

Nashed has accused the new leadership of bad faith, claiming that they have no intention to relinquish power and are, in fact, working to entrench themselves. The new government, however, had repeatedly reassured the nation that elections would be held in 2013. 

While majority of Maldivians are hoping that the new government makes good on its promise, the more progressive groups are optimistic that the leadership goes one step further and takes the Maldives elections to the digital age as to assure that the coming national elections are free and fair.  

There are hopeful signs that e-voting could happen soon in the Maldives.  According to various reports, the Maldives Elections Commission (MEC) is already seriously looking into the possibility of using the electronic voting machines (EVM's) from India for its next elections.

Fuad Thaufeeq, who heads the MEC, said the Indian-made voting machines could be suitable for the country with proper enhancements in the law.

“So far, we have been getting information from many countries in Europe, South America and Asia which have used these. Regionally, India, Nepal, and Bhutan have used the machines and we are also getting advice from them. Hopefully the system will work, but some laws will have to be changed and the public must support the decision,” said Thaufeeq.

As a matter of fact, India had offered Maldives a few hundred EVM's several years ago. Maldives, however, refused it at that time, saying that the timing wasn’t right yet as the Indian-made machines still had no printing capabilities. In addition, there were alarming claims made by University of Michigan researchers that they were able to manipulate results simply by sending text messages from a mobile phone to the machines.

As expected, Indian election officials vehemently contested such claim averring that their machines are some of the most tamper-proof EVM's in the world.

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.

Belgium makes a new bet on e-voting

Image: European Journalism Centre

Since the 1990s, Belgium has been incorporating technology to its elections to guarantee greater levels of efficiency. Together with Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, and France, Belgium tried different companies which offered an array of technologies. After poor performances by the deficient technology available at the time, and irresponsible providers willing to make business at the expense of authorities' genuine desire to improve election administration, most of the aforementioned nations went back to the old paper ballot and pencils that, although inefficient, kept electoral watchdog groups calmed.
 
However, Belgium insisted with the automation, and after a rigorous bidding process, a certification by independent agency PricewaterhouseCoopers of the solution in hand, and an actual field test with real voters trying the proposed solution, the nation announced, in November 2011, the signing of a contract with Smartmatic to automate the elections for the next fifteen years.

The new voting platform will be used for the first time during the October 14, 2012 provincial and municipal elections. Approximately three million voters from 155 cities and communes of Brussels and Flanders will express their opinion using 17,400 Voting Machines deployed in 3,346 polling stations. These voting machines are part of a voting platform designed by Smartmatic under the specific directions of the Belgium electoral authorities. Besides the voting machines, it includes, 3,700 President Machines which serve as the information source of ballot definition, and accumulator for consolidating results, 3,700 electronic ballot boxes, and 17,300 Smart Cards.

A commitment for 15 years is certainly a sign of the confidence Belgium has on the solution it created together with Smartmatic. The company, which also automates election in Venezuela, the Philippines, and provides services to Brazil, and other countries, has a one-of-a-kind opportunity to demonstrate its ability to customize solutions while guaranteeing the levels of transparency and accuracy citizens deserve.

We will soon see if e-voting manages to make its way through this time around.

7 facts about the Venezuelan Presidential election

Photo: Birmingham Respect blog

1) On October 7, 2012, Venezuela will elect a President for the 2013-2019 term. Hugo Chávez Frias, Henrique Capriles Radonski, Reina Sequera, Luis Reyes, María Bolívar, and Orlando Chirino, are the six candidates that 18.903.143 Venezuelans registered to vote will choose from.  

2) In total, the Venezuelan Electoral Council (CNE) has made available voting stations for 13,810 polling centers which will serve 39,322 precincts. Of these voting stations, 304 are located in the 126 diplomatic offices Venezuela has around the world. All 100,495 Venezuelans registered to vote abroad, will vote manually. 

3) To accurately capture the preferences of voters, Venezuela’s electoral authority, in partnership with multinational Smartmatic, will set up and deploy 39,018 touch-screen voting machines. Each machine will be connected to a touch sensitive electronic ballot and a biometric fingerprint device. 

4) This will be the first national election in the world with biometric activation of the voting session. Using a biometric fingerprint reader, the system will automatically authenticate the identity of the voter and activate the voting session.

5) Previous to the election, the voting machine, its electronic components and the voting, summing, tabulating and adjudication software will have been subjected to the most demanding security tests and controls, totaling more than 17 audits and 2 simulation processes. The installed software is to be jointly certified by the electoral authority and the political parties. 

6) After the polls close, the CNE, the various political parties, international companions and national observers as well as representatives from the civil society are due to perform a closing random audit comprising 54% of the voting machines (matching each machine’s Precinct Count Report vs. the manual count of all paper ballots deposited into the respective ballot boxes).

7) After the CNE publishes a first bulletin with official results, all the data is broadcast over the Internet.