When using technology to facilitate the electoral process, several guiding principles can be identified. These guiding principles should be followed to establish and maintain public confidence in the electoral process.
These guiding principles are:
- take a holistic view
- transparency
- trust
- ethical behaviour
- security
- accuracy
- privacy
- inclusiveness
- cost effectiveness
- efficiency
- sustainability
- flexibility
- service-mindedness
Take a holistic view
Technology is not an end in itself. When technology is used for electoral purposes, regard must be had for the electoral context in which the technology is used. For example, where technology is used for vote counting, the guiding principles that apply to vote counting (see Guiding Principles) will also apply to the technology being used.
Electoral processes involve more than just the technology being used. They include the relevant laws and guidelines, the social and political context, the organisational culture and the training and procedures developed to complement the technology. These factors need to be taken into account when new technology is adopted.
Technology should not be adopted for its own sake. There needs to be a clear need for introducing new or updated technology.
Transparency
Transparency - open, accountable processes - is a key feature of democratic elections. At every stage of the election process, external observers (including domestic and where relevant international observers) should have the right to be satisfied that correct procedures are being followed.
With manual processes, transparency is relatively straightforward, as the processes are usually visible and it is not difficult to provide meaningful access to external observers. With some technological processes, it may be more difficult for external observers to satisfy themselves that election outcomes are above board. For example, with electronic voting systems, how can the casual observer be sure that what went in to the 'black box' is what came out? On the other hand, transparency may also be enhanced by use of technology, for example, by using databases to produce meaningful reports from large quantities of data.
With electronic systems, transparency may have to be provided in a completely different way than with manual systems. This may involve software audits, code verification or compilation checks, for example.
As a result, the skills needed by observers of technological processes may be completely different than those needed by traditional election observers. To ensure transparency, the election management body may need to provide special training to observers, or employ independent observers or auditors to verify that their systems are accurate.
Trust
Everyone involved in an election must have trust in the election processes.
When introducing new technology, it is important that all stakeholders in the election trust that the new systems will perform properly. Ensuring election processes are transparent is one way of generating trust. An open consultation process with stakeholders when introducing new technology is another way. Appropriate levels of security are also essential.
Electoral managers and their staff must also trust the technology they use in their work. This can be achieved by rigorous evaluation processes and by effective training strategies.
Where external vendors, technical staff, software programmers and consultants are involved in supplying and/or maintaining technology, the EMB must be satisfied that they are trustworthy. This can be achieved by assessing references from other employers and by external audits and verification checks.
Ethics
Related to the issues of transparency and trust, EMBs should follow appropriate ethics when implementing new technology. When choosing technology suppliers, EMBs should ensure that the tendering process is fair and open, without favouritism or corruption. All government purchasing procedures applicable to the selection of technology should be followed.
When buying hardware and software, EMBs should ensure that proper licences are obtained. Apart from the legal and ethical problems with using unlicensed or unregistered software, users also run the risk of not being notified of known bugs, software fixes or upgrades.
Security
Computer systems used for elections must include high levels of security. Unauthorised persons must be prevented from accessing, altering or downloading sensitive electoral data. Demonstrable security levels are another way of ensuring that election systems are transparent and trustworthy.
Various mechanisms exist to provide for computer security. These include password protection, encryption, verification programs and physical isolation. (See Security.)
Accuracy
Accuracy is vital to the conduct of an election, particularly when counting and reporting election results. To ensure that technological systems are trustworthy, they must be tested to verify that they are accurate.
Accuracy can be tested by entering known data into a system and verifying that the system correctly arrives at the known result. Another method is to process the same set of data through two or more different, independent systems to verify that each obtain the same results.
On the whole, it would be expected that accuracy would increase as new and improved technology was adopted.
Privacy
Electoral computer systems often contain sensitive personal data on large numbers of individuals. This can include names, addresses and other personal details from voters lists, and voting intentions from electronic voting systems. Many countries have privacy laws and policies which place restrictions on access to personal information.
As a general principle, every person should have the right to personal privacy. If a person's privacy is invaded by improper use of electoral data, both that person and the respect accorded to the electoral process may suffer.
Accordingly, security built into electoral computer systems should take account of the need to protect the privacy of personal data held on them. Audit trails can be built into systems containing personal data to track which individuals have accessed or modified personal data, to help monitor and prevent any unauthorised invasion of privacy.
Inclusiveness
Where a technology is being adopted that will impact on internal and/or external users, they should be included in a consultation process to ensure that their needs are met and that they are satisfied that the new system is acceptable and trustworthy. By being inclusive, EMBs will increase the likelihood that the new technology will be successfully implemented.
Where potential users of a new technology, especially the general public, are not familiar with the technology being introduced, it is important to provide sufficient information to users to enable them to feel included in the process. As election technology has the potential to directly effect the political process, it is important to engender a sense of ownership in its users, much more so than might be considered for other government systems.
In addition, access and equity considerations should be taken into account when adopting new technology to ensure that people with special needs are included.
Cost effectiveness
Introducing new technology for electoral purposes can increase costs, and it can decrease costs, depending on the cost of the new technology compared to the cost of the system it replaces. An assessment of the cost effectiveness of new technology should be made before committing to its introduction.
Technology may appear to be costly at the implementation stage, but technology may save money in the long term, particularly where a low-cost technological solution can be found to replace a high-cost, low-tech application. You need to weigh the costs and savings associated with introducing technology. When doing so, you must keep in mind not only the initial costs involved in purchasing hardware and software and employing consultants to set up your new system, but also the ongoing maintenance and management costs.
The expected life-span of the technology should be determined. A technology that can be re-used for more than one purpose or for more than one election will be more cost-effective than one that can only be used once before it needs to be replaced (see Sustainability below).
Many technological solutions may cost significantly more than the equivalent manual processes that they replace. It may not always be cost effective to implement new technology where relatively minor improvements do not justify the extra cost. You do not have to implement a high-cost, high-tech solution if a low-cost, low-tech alternative is acceptable in your particular circumstances.
Before entering into a technology purchase, you need to be sure that you have the funds for the initial implementation stage and for the ongoing maintenance costs. This will generally involve obtaining commitments through the relevant Government budgetary process.
Efficiency
It is popularly believed that new technology is more efficient than the old. This may not always be the case in practice. It is possible to replace an efficient manual process with an inefficient automated one if the new process is not carefully thought through. When deciding to implement a new technology, care should be taken to ensure that the new system is more efficient than the one it replaces.
One of the greatest benefits of technology is its ability to perform large complex tasks in a short space of time, compared to the time needed to undertake the tasks manually. This may enable EMBs to reduce costs by employing fewer staff. Be aware, however, that access to more modern technology may also lead to greater demands on staff as productivity rises and more is expected of them.
Sustainability
Technology is generally expensive to acquire. If the technology is sustainable, and able to be used for more than one purpose or more than one election, it will be more cost effective.
Adopting new technology for each election may prove expensive and unsustainable in the long term. On the other hand, technology is improving at such a rapid rate that this year's technology may be out of date by the time the next election comes along in 4 year's time. Personal computer processing power is a good example of how 'state of the art' technology can rapidly be overtaken by technological improvements. Where change is rapid, it may be more cost-effective to lease equipment rather than purchase it to ensure that you optimise your capabilities at each successive election.
Flexibility
A technology that is flexible is also more likely to be cost-effective and sustainable. It may be desirable to adopt a technology that has the potential for more than one use if this would not compromise the primary need for the technology.
In cases of transitional environments where the future of election management methods is uncertain, it is desirable to adopt flexible technology that would be more likely to be useful under different circumstances. In other words, it is desirable to avoid purchasing technology that is highly specialised and inflexible, and to purchase instead more generic products that would facilitate the use of a wide range of applications.
One of the perceived advantages of using technology for elections is its ability to provide greater flexibility to users, by offering users more options. When introducing new technology EMBs should be careful that the technology used does not reduce flexibility by limiting the number of options available. For example, it may be more desirable to introduce electronic voting as another option to using manual ballots, rather than completely replacing manual ballots with electronic voting, to ensure that users without electronic skills or access are not disadvantaged.
Service -mindedness
Elections are largely about providing a service for clients the voters. New technology should be chosen with client service in mind. It should be easy to use, particularly by external users, and tend to simplify the electoral process for voters, not make it more difficult.
