Electronic Voting & Counting Technologies - IFES

INTERNATIONAL ELECTORAL PILOT STANDARDS PROJECT• Possible legal challenges to the useof electronic voting and countingtechnologies.This risk management plan should beestablished at the beginning of the pilotproject process and reviewed periodicallythroughout the process. The same riskmanagement plan — as adjusted basedon lessons learned during the pilot —should be used during any future full scaleimplementation of the electronic voting andcounting technologies.Procuring Electronic Votingand Counting TechnologiesThe process of procuring electronic votingand counting technologies can take sometime and needs to be conducted in an openand transparent manner. The EMB needsto ensure it is in control of this procurementprocess in terms of defining the requirementsfor the technologies to be piloted. The processmust not be vendor driven, with vendorstelling the EMB what it is that they require.Good procurement practice would indicateadhering to the following three procedures:• Time — Sufficient time will need to beprovided to vendors to properly respondto the many facets of the request forproposals. A reasonable timeframe forsuch a request for proposals would be inthe region of four to six weeks. Vendorsshould be allowed to seek clarificationson aspects of the request for proposalsat a predefined date part way throughthe procurement process. The questionsraised and answers provided should bemade available to all through the EMB or asponsoring institution’s website, includingvendors who submitted questions.• Open and Impartial ProcurementProcess — The procurement processitself should be open and impartial.Request for proposals should be widelypublished through the media and onthe sponsoring institution’s website;decisions should be taken according topre-established criteria. In addition, itmay also be decided to send the requestfor proposals directly to well-establishedelectronic voting and countingtechnology vendors, especially thosewith whom a relationship has been builtduring the decision in principle stage ofthe feasibility study.• Evaluation Criteria — The request forproposals should indicate to the bidderswhich evaluation criteria will be applied inselecting vendor(s) to supply products forthe pilot project. Evaluation criteria mightinclude compliance of the proposal withtechnical specifications, experience ofthe vendor in delivering similar solutions,quality and experience of the projectmanagement team offered by the vendor,access provided by the vendor to thesource code and the price.Each criterion needs to be individuallyscored (e.g., on a scale of 1–10, with 1indicating the lowest score and 10 thehighest). Each evaluation criterion willnot be of equal importance; therefore,International Foundation for Electoral Systems 61