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Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology

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Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology ELECTION TECHNOLOGY SERIES Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology Michael Yard Editor Direct Democracy Michael Yard Editor International Foundation for Electoral Systems Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology Michael Yard Editor September 2010 Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology, Michael Yard © 2010 by IFES. All rights reserved. IFES 1850 K St, NW Fifth Floor Washington, D.C. 20006 U.S.A. Notice of rights All rights reserved. No part of this report can be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publisher. Printed in United States of America ISBN: 1-931459-51-7 International Foundation for Electoral Systems i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This publication represents the efforts and contributions of a large number of people. It would not have been possible to complete this project without the dedicated support of IFES professionals in Washington, DC, and internationally. The project was made possible by the F. Clifton White Applied Research Center for Democracy and Elections (ARC). Specific thanks are due to ARC Director Rakesh Sharma and research staff, Gabrielle Bardall and Hani Zainulbhai, as well as Bella Desai and Theresa Yu Chen, of IFES’ Communication and Advocacy Division. Gabrielle has been integrally involved in the project from the beginning and has provided immeasurable guidance in establishing the framework, selecting the case studies, contacting writers, and giving patient but consistent reminders of looming deadlines. Thanks are due to the case study writers who generously shared their insight and unique experiences in these pages and to Staffan Darnolf and Ben Goldsmith for their reviews and invaluable recommendations. I would like to personally thank my wife, Laura Brodrick, for her loving support through the past 16 years of working internationally, which has resulted in many missed family holidays and late nights at the computer when I am home. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the late Joe C. Baxter, a pioneer in international election assistance, as well as a mentor and friend, from whom I learned most of what I know about election administration and whose passion for promoting democratic integrity was contagious. International Foundation for Electoral Systems i Table of Contents Acronyms iii List of Tables and Figures iv About the Authors v Preface 8 Key Guidelines and Principles 13 Results Compilations and Transmission 25 Kenya: Results Compilation and Transmission for Effective Communications, Michael Yard 33 Indonesia: Intelligent Character Recognition and SMS Results Reporting, Michael Yard 41 Armenia: Pioneering Transparent and Auditable Results Reports, Michael Yard 56 Electronic Voting 68 Kazakhstan: The Sailau E-Voting System, Douglas W. Jones 74 Ireland: A Decade of Electronic Voting, Ronan McDermott 96 Party and Candidate Registration 108 Guyana: Solutions in Candidate and Party Registration, Lessons Learned and Implications for EMB Operations, Gavin Campbell 113 Sierra Leone: When Less is More - Solutions in Candidate and Party Registration, Magnus Ohman 119 England: Applying Solutions in the Electoral Process, Robert Jordan 130 Conclusion 142 Annexes Annex 1 152 Annex 2 154 Annex 3 155 ii Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology International Foundation for Electoral Systems iii ACRONYMS AFIS Automated Fingerprint Identification System BM Ballot Module CEC Central Election Commission CEV Commission on Electronic Voting CoEC Community Electoral Commission CoE The Council of Europe CPP Convention’s People’s Party DPD Regional Representative Council DPR Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (People’s Representative Council) DPRD Provincial Level People's Representative Council DPRD/K Regency and Municipality level People's Representative Council DRE Direct Recording Electronic Systems ECK Election Commission of Kenya EMB Election Management Body GAO U.S. Government Accounting Office GECOM Guyana Elections Commission GPRS General Packet Radio Service GSM Global System for Mobile ICR Intelligent Character Recognition ICT Information and Communication Technologies IES Integrated Election Software KPU Komisi Pemilihan Umum (General Elections Commission, Indonesia) MERC Media Election Results Center NEC National Electoral Commission OMR Optical Mark Recognitition Scanners OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe PPRC Political Parties Registration Commission (Sierra Leone) PR Proportional Representation PRU Programming and Reading Unit PVT Parallel Vote Tabulation REC Regional Election Commission SERIS SMS Election Results Information System SIM Subscriber Identity Module STV Single Transferable Vote TLM Technology Lifecycle Management VM Voting Machine VVPAT Voter-Verified Paper Trail VVSG Voluntary Voting System Guidelines Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology International Foundation for Electoral Systems iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ABOUT THE AUTHORS Figure 1 – The Electoral Cycle 14 Figure 2 – Changes in the Windows Operating System 15 Figure 3 – Overlay of Election and Technology Timelines 16 Figure 4 – Technology Lifecycle Management 17 Figure 5 – Form 16A – Declaration of Results 37 Figure 6 – Constituency Tabulation Form (first page) 39 Figure 7 – Data Flow Diagram 45 Figure 8 – Simplified Voting System Lifecycle 73 Figure 9 – An Irish e-Voting Machine 104 Figure 10 – An Illustration of the Irish e-Voting system components 107 Table 1 – Precinct Level Results for 2008 Presidential Election, Pima County, Arizona 28 Table 2 – Consolidated Results for 2008 Presidential Election, Pima County, Arizona 28 Table 3 – State of Arizona Consolidated Results Presidential 2008 29 Table 4 – C1 Form, Correct 51 Table 5 – C1 Form, Incorrect, but still accepted: 51 Table 6 – Sample Log of Precinct Protocols 60 Table 7 – Armentel Computer Validation Process 61 iv Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology International Foundation for Electoral Systems v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ABOUT THE AUTHORS Michael Yard is a recognized international election administration and technology expert and has advised election authorities in Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Guyana, Kenya, Kosovo, Liberia, Macedonia, Moldova, Nigeria, Peru, Serbia, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Ukraine, and Yemen. Mr. Yard has provided authoritative technical assistance on election technology and systems for voter and candidate registration, political finance tracking and reporting, procurement, logistics, fleet management, vote tabulation, and results dissemination. He has particular expertise in voter and civil registration systems, large-scale data entry, data validation, and database design. Drawing on 25 years of experience in systems analysis and design and software development, Mr. Yard has technical knowledge of a variety of technical platforms, operating systems, programming languages, and applications. He has advised election authorities on procurement of appropriate hardware and software. Gavin Campbell is a database systems developer, with experience of small and large scale system implementation in both commercial and governmental organizations. His extensive experience in developing countries includes more than four years as an information technology specialist with the Guyanese Elections Commission and working with the Immigration Services of Angola as a software engineer. Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology International Foundation for Electoral Systems v ABOUT THE AUTHORS ABOUT THE AUTHORS Douglas W. Jones is an associate professor of computer science at the University of Iowa. He served on the Iowa state Board of Examiners for Voting Machines and Electronic Voting Systems for a decade, ending in 2004, and was appointed to the Technical Guidelines Development Committee of the United States Election Assistance Commission in 2009. He has served as an election observer in Kazakhstan and the Netherlands, and has done significant research on both touch-screen and optical-scan voting systems. Robert Jordan is qualified as a chartered secretary and was one of the first persons to obtain the Association of Electoral Administrators Diploma. He spent most of his working life employed by a municipal authority organizing elections and electoral registration, becoming an examiner for the Electoral Administrators’ professional qualifications. Since retiring he has travelled extensively working as a consultant assisting electoral boards to develop electoral registration and election systems, particularly in respect of legal and IT requirements. He also assisted in electoral logistics and undertook numerous electoral observation missions and assessments. vi Direct Democracy: Progress and Pitfalls of Election Technology International Foundation for Electoral Systems vii ABOUT THE AUTHORS Ronan McDermott worked for IFES as a Voter Registration Advisor to the elections management body in Pakistan from 2006 until 2009. He has also worked with the UN and UNDP on various information technology (IT) aspects of elections such as operations manuals, voter registries, systems testing, and vote tabulation intake management. He has been involved in electoral projects in Guyana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, DRC, Nigeria,
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