General Issues
Advances in technology have had significant impact on the way in which individual voters can participate in voting. The effect is not only on voters' required actions within the voting station but on the overall management of and participation in the voting process. These effects may be on possible time frames, communication methods, materials used, and staff, political participant and observer training.
Implementation of technological advances can have significant impacts on the key voting operations objectives of accessibility, security, transparency, secrecy of ballot, sustainability, result accuracy, speed of operations and readiness. Care must be taken to ensure that positive outcomes against some objectives are not outweighed by negative factors in relation to others. Most importantly, the proposed benefits of the technology must be achievable within the context of the particular election environment. Use of advanced technology should not become an end in itself. In most circumstances, the simpler the system, the more reliable and publicly acceptable the outcome.
(For some developments that may be applied to voting operations requirements, see Automated Processes.)
Key Issues
When considering implementing technological change, a number of key questions should be answered:
- How does the technology impact on other aspects of the electoral process?
- Does the proposed technology provide a sustainable method of operation?
- Is the technology cost-effective? (see Costs of Technology)
- Is the technology appropriate for the particular geographic, electoral, cultural environments and infrastructure?
- Does the technology result in effective knowledge transfer and capacity building?
- What are the impacts of the proposed technology on transparency of voting operations?
- What are the impacts of the proposed technology on the secrecy of voting?
- What are the impacts of the technology on accessibility of voting operations?
- What are the impacts of the technology on security of voting operations?
- What are the impacts of the proposed technology on the readiness of the electoral management body to conduct an election?
- What are the impacts of the proposed technology on service to voters?
In different voting operations situations, there may be varying weight given to the responses to each question.
Impacts on Other Aspects of the Electoral Process
Voting operations are closely linked to vote counting, and introduction of new technological solutions will have interdependent effects. There may also be effects on voter registration and education, electoral management systems and the need for revision of legislation and regulations.
Sustainability
Particularly in transitional elections, or where elections are being conducted with significant international technical assistance or funding, use of technology should be at a level that provides a sustainable and maintainable resource. Availability of continued maintenance support, which may need to come from another country, over the intended life of the system is critical for effective system operation. Professional skills will be required, not only for future operation of the system but for regular testing to ensure its operational readiness.
In all circumstances, choice of technology should take into account probable life cycles of the system and future upgrading capabilities. Rapid advances in computer and general communications technologies may make such prediction difficult. Mistaken choices can prove costly, and truly independent advice on system capabilities may not be available. However, these considerations must be analysed, and need not be a deterrent, through fear of obsolescence, to introducing technological changes.
Cost-Effectiveness
Investment in some new technologies, especially computer-based systems, may incur both a large initial investment as well as continuing maintenance and storage costs for equipment and associated systems that may be used infrequently for electoral purposes. In the absence of a permanent electoral use, cost-effective choices would allow sharing of these resources with other jurisdictions, both to make use of the system itself and the staff trained in its operation.
Other factors influencing cost-effectiveness of a technology proposal include responsiveness to local needs, reliability, speed of operation, requirements for training of officials, and often requirements for education of parties, candidates, and voters. Relatively unskilled, election-related employment may be important to local economies, particularly in rural areas and regions of high unemployment. This should be considered when assessing proposals for introducing technological change, even if this technology provides greater efficiencies or service.
On the other hand, the impetus for technological solutions may be past inability to engage sufficient numbers of appropriately-skilled staff. For some disposable equipment and communication technologies, a balance must be struck between their production or acquisition cost and the cost of storage and/or maintenance of permanent equipment.
Appropriateness for Environment
It is crucial that technological solutions implemented are appropriate for the environment of the particular country or region. Geographic and environmental factors, such as weather conditions and terrain, may affect the operating capacities and reliability of machines and communications systems. Introduction of new election-related technology may provide an impetus for wider capacity-building. However, existing competence levels must be sufficient for electoral staff to learn the new skills; cultural and communication environments conducive to the voting public learning any new roles; and infrastructure able to provide the required support in the time available.
Voting operations image enhancement through implementing high-tech solutions should not be at the expense of effective operational capabilities and informed voter participation.
Effective Capacity Building
Particularly in less developed countries, the introduction of significant technological change may provide increased effectiveness of voting operations for one electoral event but, in the process, establish future dependencies on external suppliers and financial burdens. Technological solutions for voting operations activities should aim to increase in-house skill levels and production capabilities at an absorbable rate. In some fields--such as non-election specific computer applications and hardware maintenance, communications systems and materials manufacture and printing--introduction of new election technologies should be designed to maximise the portability of these skills and capacities to other public and private sector areas.
Impact on Transparency
Electronic processing of ballots and communication of voting operations information involves processes that do not have the same visual transparency as paper-based systems. Not only election officials, candidates and parties, but the public in general must have confidence that electronic processing is accurate and equitable. Gaining such confidence may require such measures as:
- public accessibility to system testing sessions and their results;
- publicly verifiable code for systems;
- publicly acceptable security for code;
- parallel paper-based checks on system outcomes.
These will all add to the cost of introducing new technology.
Impacts on Secrecy of Voting
In addition to ensuring the transparency of technology used in voting operations, the secrecy of the ballot must be maintained. All participants and the voting public must be assured that electronic or other systems used cannot be manipulated to allow the linking of voters' names with their ballots. This requires strict and publicly visible controls on systems used to record ballots, to record electors who have voted, and to personalise any voting material for electors.
Impacts on Accessibility
In introducing technology-based changes to methods of voting, training staff or communicating voting operations information, consideration must be given to whether these methods have sufficient coverage of the target population and are equally accessible to all. Particularly in the introduction of new methods of voting--for example, by automated mail, voting station, or home computers, phone, or fax--a mix of automated and other methods may be required to retain accessibility for those who may be out of reach of such systems.
Impacts on Security
Electronic communication methods are invisible, and as such can raise automatic suspicions of potential election fraud. There must be public confidence, in the light of substantial publicity given to the possibilities of tampering with electronic communication systems, that each vote completed electronically and information transmitted electronically has not been altered. Gaining such confidence regarding security may again require such measures as:
- public accessibility to systems testing sessions and their results;
- publicly verifiable code for systems;
- publicly acceptable secure storage for code and secure operational locations;
- parallel paper-based checks on system outcomes.
Similar security concerns must be considered when introducing new methods of voting operations materials and equipment production. New print technologies allow more distributed local, low cost production of voting materials, including ballots. Similarly, design advances now allow complete outfitting of voting stations with low cost disposable equipment and furniture--including ballot boxes. However, public confidence in the security, in the particular election environment, of such low cost but potentially less secure technology must be well founded before introduction.
Impacts on Management Readiness
In order to introduce technology in a professional manner time is needed to:
- specify requirements in detail;
- assess alternative technological solutions and determine the most suitable;
- identify the appropriate suppliers and arrange purchase and delivery;
- plan the system's introduction;
- install the system and rigorously test it under operating conditions;
- produce associated operational and reference materials;
- train system operators;
- inform and educate electoral players, i.e., parties, candidates and the voting public.
Technological systems introduced in haste--which typically involves short cuts in the specification, planning, testing and information phases--can have significant negative effects on an electoral management body's readiness to conduct an election. These effects may include the possibility of technological systems not working and/or in diversion of staff from other election tasks to last-minute system modifications. It is wise to have a firm cut-off date--at a minimum of three months before a scheduled election date--for the introduction of new technology.
Impacts on Voter Service
Technological innovations should provide an enhanced voting operations service to voters, including:
- better and more timely information;
- more understandable processes, particularly where ballots are complicated to complete manually;
- more effective resourcing of voting locations;
- less waiting time to vote;
- more accurate and efficient data flows to counting and result calculation processes.
Where technological solutions require more complex actions by voters--for instance, with some computer-based voting systems--the effect on service to voters must be considered and sufficient time and resources for public education allowed. If there is any doubt about the ability of voters to fully comprehend proposed technological solutions, a lower-tech solution may be more appropriate.
