Electronic Voting & Counting Technologies - IFES

INTERNATIONAL ELECTORAL DECISION IN STANDARDSPRINCIPLEit does represent the reality of the decisionbeing considered — the costs of continuingwith the existing system versus thoseassociated with a completely new system.Variable costs relate to the kinds of costs thatare repeated for each election that the systemis used and could include the following:• Paper Balloting--Cost of printing ballot papers--Cost of printing voter lists for thepolling station--Cost of transportation of materials(ballots, ballot boxes, votingbooths, etc.)--Cost of ballot box seals--Cost of voter marking ink--Cost of other polling materials(official stamps, ink pads, forms,envelopes, etc.)--Cost of polling staff required forpaper balloting--Costs of educating voters on paperballoting• Electronic Voting or Counting Technology--Cost of printing voter lists for thepolling station or uploading voter liststo electronic voting machines--Cost of transportation of materials(electronic voting or countingmachines, stands/voting booths, etc.)--Cost of replacement batteries forelectronic voting or counting machines--Cost of ballot papers for electroniccounting systems or paper for anyPaper Audit Trail with an electronicvoting machine solution--Cost of voter marking ink--Cost of other polling materials(voting machine activation keys,official stamps, ink pads, forms,envelopes, etc.)--Cost of polling staff with thenecessary skills to administer the useof the electronic voting or countingtechnology--Cost of any additional pollingstation infrastructure required bythe electronic voting or countingtechnology--Cost of any results data transmissionhardware (connectivity or portablestorage devices)--Cost of specialized staff/techniciansrequired to configure, test andsupport the electronic voting orcounting technology--Costs of managing the change insystem, including significant costs oftraining staff and educating voters onusing electronic voting or countingtechnologyThese fixed and variable costs varyfrom electoral environment to electoralenvironment. It is highly likely that the initialinvestment costs associated with usingelectronic voting or counting technologiesare much higher than those associatedwith paper balloting (even if a completenew investment in ballot boxes was beingconsidered). The variable costs associatedwith using an electronic voting system maybe much less than those associated withpaper balloting, if only because electronicvoting systems (but not electronic countingsystems) will not require paper ballots toInternational Foundation for Electoral Systems 39