Electronic Voting & Counting Technologies - IFES

INTERNATIONAL PILOT PREREQUISITESELECTORAL STANDARDSelectronic voting and counting technologies,or whether changes are required to allowtheir use. If existing legislation does not allowthe use of electronic voting and countingtechnologies then the types of pilot identifiedabove (Optional or Compulsory) will not bepossible until legislation is changed to allowthese technologies to be used.“It is recommended thatmore than one electronicvoting and counting solutionbe piloted.”Where legislative changes are required, theycan be temporary in nature for a specificelection at which the pilot will take place soeither the existing system of balloting can beused or an electronic system can be used.The latter approach provides maximumflexibility for the pilot process and meansnew legislation does not need to be passedfor each election in which a pilot takes place(it is entirely possible that electronic votingand counting technologies could be pilotedover several elections). However, changingelectoral legislation so that either system couldbe used by the EMB might be seen as aninvitation to use electronic voting and countingtechnologies at the discretion of the EMB.In addition to legislative changes requiredto allow the use of electronic technologies,it is almost certain that electoral regulationswill need to be changed. In most electoraljurisdictions these regulations are passedby the EMB, so changing them is lessproblematic than changing electorallegislation. It is still essential that theregulations be amended to facilitate the useof electronic voting or counting technologies.Electronic Voting andCounting TechnologySpecificationThe steps conducted during the decisionin principle process will help the FeasibilityStudy Committee, and the EMB, to ensurethat any electronic voting and countingtechnology pilot process is driven by theactual needs of the electoral process. Therequirements, previously defined, will becentral to drafting a comprehensive requestfor proposal for the electronic voting orcounting technology procurement process.The request for proposal will need toidentify the technical specifications whichthe solution must comply with for it to beconsidered and also request information onother product and support related issuesrelevant to the bid selection process.The technical specification will need toprovide the following parameters for vendorsto comply with:• Type of electronic voting or countingsolution for which quotes are beingrequested (e.g., electronic voting,electronic counting, remote votingsolutions, etc.).• Scale of the pilot, including number oflocations, number of voting or countingmachines required, scope of any remotevoting pilot and number of registeredvoters the pilot will need to accommodate.54Electronic Voting & Counting Technologies: A Guide to Conducting Feasibility Studies