The use of technology for any purpose may imply serious risks for its users. In the case of electoral administration, a procedural or technological failure may impact gravely on a community, a region or the entire country.
This means that while it is always important to find ways to minimise the impact of technology malfunctions, for electoral administration and especially for voting operations it may be crucial.
Ways to minimise the risks in using technology for electoral purposes include:
- following systems verification, testing and maintenance procedures to ensure that hardware, communications and software operate effectively
- ensuring that the technology is physically secure, preventing accidental damage or unauthorised access
- implementing data collection procedures and methodologies that ensure that data is collected and verified reliably
- organizing appropriate electoral staff training
- ensuring that data and computer programs are secure, including the use of encrypting techniques to prevent unauthorised access
- putting in place data back up procedures, including reliable data storage and restoring
- providing manual contingency systems
- using auditing code and protecting computer software against computer viruses
- taking out appropriate insurance measures to guard against monetary or material loss
- building in performance safeguards to ensure that staff and external suppliers have a direct interest in the successful completion of a project, such as performance bonds, bonuses or penalty clauses
- adopting public assurance measures to satisfy stakeholders that the technology is reliable and transparent through public logic and accuracy tests, making software code available for scrutiny and conducting voter information campaigns
- adopting and enforcing privacy policies to ensure that personal and confidential data is kept secure, while also guaranteeing that appropriate public information is readily available
