Telecommunications technology refers to distance communications, such as radio, telephone, television, satellite, microwave, data communication, and computer networking. In the 21st century, it is essential to the conduct of most elections.
Depending on the country, all or some of these telecommunications technologies are used by the electoral administration to transmit information: via voice in telephony and radio, documents in faxes or data including text, sounds and images, in computer networks.
Telecommunications technologies continue to evolve rapidly and are becoming increasingly affordable and reliable to communicate voice, data and even images between distant and isolated places around the world. This facilitates the organisation of elections by enabling communication of electoral officers stationed at remote locations with their respective regional and national offices.
The main components of a telecommunications system are: the transmitter, a device that originates communication; atmosphere or cables, the medium over which the transmission takes place and the receiver, the end point of the transmission.
The transmitter transforms or encodes the data/message into a signal, which is transmitted to one or more receivers that decode it to make it understandable to the user, a person or a computer or other piece of hardware. This transmission can be bi-directional, if at the end of the transmission path there is a combination of transmitter and receiver. In the case of a “broadcast” signal the transmission goes only from one transmitter to many receivers, such as a radio or television set.
As the signal travels through the transmission medium from the transmitter to the receiver it is likely to be degraded or even modified by the interference of other signals. Most of the time, the decoding mechanism is capable of recovering the message and making it understood by the final user of the message.
Specific security issues are associated with the use of telecommunications systems. In particular, there is the possibility of undesired or unauthorized modification of the transmitted signal or message, between the transmitter and the receivers. For example, interference with telephone transmitting signals can result in conversations being heard by third parties without the knowledge of the people at both ends of the transmission path. There is also the possibility that data can be stolen or modified during its transmission by interfering with the radio frequency emissions that carry the data.
Electoral administrators need to be aware of the possibility of a security breach when data such as the results of vote counting, voter data registration or even payments to third parties are transmitted from one place to another.
Telephone and facsimile are frequently used by electoral officials. Besides personal communications, electoral authorities can use the telephone for public communication campaigns and can establish toll-free telephone numbers to handle questions from voters and/or for voting.
Mobile telephones provide a flexible alternative to standard telephones, particularly where there is no reliable infrastructure for standard telephones. They may also be a faster and more affordable way to create a voice communications network.
Mobile phones can also facilitate communications among offices that have no access to standard phones services and also between electoral offices and polling sites on Election Day.
Satellite phones and facsimiles can be used to communicate between places where no standard or mobile phone service is available. During voter registration periods and election days, this technology, if available, can solve serious problems of communications with remote areas, especially those without any access to telecommunications infrastructure.
The use of public radio by electoral administrators is probably the best method for promoting voter participation in elections and disseminating information. Radio is relatively inexpensive and has the potential to reach a wide audience, including linguistically and culturally diverse audiences as well as those who have difficulty with printed material for literacy or disability reasons.
Television is also widely used by electoral authorities to promote participation in elections and to disseminate information in many countries its reach is still restricted to a few cities and television ownership can be low. Television is also a practical and powerful medium for reaching audiences who have difficulty with printed material. However, the use of television may be expensive unless television stations consider broadcasting electoral information a public service and decide to offer substantial discounts.
Telecommunications technology also enables computers and/or groups of computers to be connected through networks, including Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs), making possible the communication and sharing of data. These networks employ specialized software to allow computer around the world to communicate via intranets, extranets and the Internet (World Wide Web) and transmit voice, images and data, including emails.
