The symposium discussed the role of technology, specifically Smartmatic's digital pen, in enhancing voter registration processes to build confidence and trust in electoral outcomes. It emphasized that instead of investing in voter registration equipment, authorities should focus on creating a reliable and accurate voter register database. Successful case studies, particularly from Bolivia, illustrated the importance of proper training, stakeholder engagement, and effective project management for increasing voter registration and participation.

1. ICPS International Electoral Affairs Symposium
Nairobi, Kenya
25/6/2014 – 27/6/2014
“Will technology help in building confidence and trust?”
Part 2
Good morning ladies & gentlemen,
I hope you have enjoyed yesterday’s talk. And if not then I
hope I will be more successful today.
Today I like to talk about the impact of voter registration
technology on confidence and trust in electoral processes.
But before I start with that and as an introduction to this
topic, I think it’s useful to first reiterate on some of the
most important messages of yesterday’s presentation.
The most important message of yesterday’s talk was ……..
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Smartmatic’s digital pen
POLLING STATION
Preparation of count
report using Digital
Pen
Report
transmission
Reception of reports /
Validation of business
rules on the report
Aggregation of
results
Verification process
/Discrepancy resolution
/Final certification
Proclamation
RESULTS VERIFICATON & PROCESSING CENTER
Yesterday, I presented how the use of the Smartmatic digital pen
technology is helping to build confidence and trust by converting vote
count reports into aggregated tallies in a fast, accurate, reliable and secure
way.
The unique and patented paper, the pen technology, the speed of
collecting the count report together with a back-end system supporting a
procedure of verification, discrepancy resolution and certification of results
provides a watertight barrier against any risks that could compromise fair
election tallies caused by unintended administrative errors and even ill
intended manipulation.
I hope you all have had the opportunity to see a live demo either at our
stand or in our private demo room.
And when you did, you have seen that it’s really easy to use, without
intensive technical training. The threshold for implementation is also very
low. Since there’s no need for heavy investments and in most cases no
need for electoral code changes or law amendments.
If for some reason, you haven’t had the time to visit our stand, please take
the small effort to put it on your to-do list before the end of today’s
program of the symposium. I promise you, you won’t regret it.
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The combination of Good Technology and
Process Improvement is needed for
Successful elections
Good
Technology
Process
Improvement
But the real message is that if you want to have successful
elections you need to combine good technology with
process improvement.
This overall message also applies to the specific message I
have hidden in today’s presentation.
Today’s specific message is ……..
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4. “Buying voter registration equipment is
a waste of money …
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Buying voter registration equipment is a waste of money ……….
So I urge all of you,
From now on, please don’t buy any voter registration
equipment anymore ……
You must all be thinking that guy from Smartmatic has gone mad, he must
be suffering from a sun struck, he completely lost his mind or …. ????
He represents the company that - mind you the same company that pays
his salary - is in the business of developing and manufacturing the best
voter registration equipment money can buy in the world. They even took
the effort to bring some of this equipment all the way from Amsterdam to
the lake front of Lake Naivasha to have it here on display, and he’s telling
to not buy this equipment anymore!!!!
Does anybody see a straight jacket or nurses with some sedatives???
No? So could this then mean that I’m serious??
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5. …. because you don’t need to own equipment.
What you need is a voter register.”
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………. because owning a pool of voter register equipment is not a
goal in itself, but what you need is a reliable and accurate
database with a voter register.
And of course in order to generate a reliable and accurate
database you need to use high quality voter registration
equipment and ditto software that are fit for its purpose.
But that’s something else than buying the equipment.
Before I go further into explaining what I mean let’s first go back
to some basics on voter registration and then I like to present a
case with a successful voter registration project, which generated
some lessons learned that underpins the main message today:
“Stop buying voter registration equipment, start
buying a voter register.”
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To reduce the gap between the numbers
of the voting age population and the
registered voters…
What’s the purpose of voter registration?
The basic purpose of voter registration is to reduce the difference
between your demographic number of your voting age population
and the number of your registered voters, who formally are
eligible to vote.
If you look on the IDEA website and check data on voter turn out
statistics you will also find data per country on the voting age
population taken from census statistics and the registered
number of voters on which basis the turn out percentages are
calculated.
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What’s the purpose of voter registration?
Country Voting age
population
Registered voters
Ethiopia 42M 32M
Tanzania 21M 20M
Uganda 15M 14M
Kenya 22M 14.3M
France 52M 43M
Germany 68M 62M
United Kingdom 49M 45M
Source: http://www.idea.int
You will in almost all countries find a big difference
between these two figures.
So there’s an deviation between the number of potential
and actual eligible voters.
In an ideal democratic situation you obviously want to
have that these numbers are one and the same.
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To reduce the gap between the numbers
of the voting age population and the
registered voters…
What’s the purpose of voter registration?
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Goals for voter registration
Inclusion of all groups of voters
Increasing legitimacy of electoral results
Ensuring accurate & consistent database for authentication
Achieving synchronization of National ID and voter databases
Increasing the public’s confidence in the Electoral Management Body
Higher turnout, confidence & trust
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Challenges for voter registration
Hard to motivate voters to register
High complexity of registration operations in remote locations
Short timeframe for voter registration/data validation
Disparate standards in existing (non-)biometric voter databases
Achieving synchronization of National ID and voter databases
Poor database quality & missed deadlines
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Smartmatic voter id projects
Bolivia
Zambia
Venezuela
Mexico
Haiti
Over 160M voter id’s processed
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The Bolivia project
Key expectations:
Biometrically register 3.5 to 4 million citizens nationally and up to 200
thousand living abroad in 75 days
Key results:
5.2 million people (37% more than expected) biometrically registered in
under 75 days, with an average biometric registration time of just 3 minutes
per citizen
Increased inclusion in the Electoral Registry by 48.5% in less than 3 months
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The Bolivia project
Impact on voter turnout:
Number of registered voters increased by 40%+
Voter turnout increased 10+ Points from previous Election
Electoral Event Year Registered
Voters
Votes
Issued
Voter
Participation
General Elections 1997 3.252.501 2.321.117 71%
General Elections 2002 4.155.055 2.994.065 72%
General Elections 2005 3.671.152 3.102.417 85%
General Elections
and Referendum
2009 5.139.554 4.859.440 95%
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Key success factors for voter registration
Public Awareness & Strong Stakeholder Sponsorship
Proper staff recruitment and training
Inventory & configuration management for the biometric technology
Deployment management
Biometric enrollment and identification systems
Adequate field support for the registration process
Auditability of processes and technology
Overall project management
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Key success factors for voter registration
Public Awareness & Strong Stakeholder Sponsorship
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Key success factors for voter registration
Proper staff recruitment and training
Profile descriptions for each role and position
Train the Trainers strategy
Careful selection of facilitators
Selection of field personnel with prior similar
local experience
Certification of trained staff
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Key success factors for voter registration
Inventory & configuration management
Logistics management methodology
designed for large-scale operations
Operations Center strategically
located with the right infrastructure and
logistics-savvy personnel
Technological tools to coordinate the
configuration at each stage of the
process
Structured process with strict quality
control at each stage
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Key success factors for voter registration
Deployment management
Customized distribution strategy
Automated process and tools for logistical
handling of registration kits
Barcode Labeling of each registration kit
Reduced number of selected logistical
services providers nationwide.
Alignment of regional delivery schedules
with EMB’s plans and timeline
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Key success factors for voter registration
Public Awareness & Strong Stakeholder Sponsorship
Proper staff recruitment and training
Inventory & configuration management for the biometric technology
Deployment management
Biometric enrollment and identification systems
Adequate field support for the registration process
Auditability of processes and technology
Overall project management
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In summary
A well defined voter registration project:
Reduces the gap between voting age population & registered voters
Increases turn out
Make sure that all key success factors are addressed
Find solution providers that offer a voter register and pay per
correctly registered voter with a specified target database accuracy
Make sure that the solution provider assumes responsibility for the
end result: the contents of the database
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21. “Buying voter registration equipment
is a waste of money, because you
don’t need to own equipment.
What you need is a voter register.”
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