Electronic Voting & Counting Technologies - IFES

INTERNATIONAL THE DECISION ELECTORAL ON STANDARDSADOPTIONcountries have done. 105 Such staggeredadoption of electronic voting andcounting technologies may make agreat deal of sense as it allows for thefinancial burden to be spread overseveral budget cycles. However, suchstaggered implementation may also beproblematic as it entails fundamentaldifferences in the way in which votingrights are applied for different voters.solution against the opposition of all or most ofthe key stakeholders in the process.Once the Feasibility Study Report has beenfinalized, after this consultative process, thefull report should be made public and the mainrecommendations issued through a pressrelease by the Feasibility Study Committee.At this stage of the process theserecommendations should only be consideredas preliminary. In the interests of opennessand transparency it is important that thesepreliminary recommendations be subjectto consultation with key stakeholders. Theconsultation process should be used toexplain the details of the pilot project tostakeholders, the conclusions reached andthe recommendations being made withrespect to the adoption of electronic voting orcounting technologies.It is to be hoped that this consultation processwill complement feedback previously receivedby stakeholders throughout the process,but this may not be the case. Should theopinions of stakeholders be consistentlyopposed to the recommendations of theFeasibility Study Committee, then the causesand consequences of such disagreement willneed to be carefully considered. It would be abrave, possibly foolhardy, EMB that proceededwith adopting an electronic voting or counting105 See the example of India. Indian electronic votingmachines were first piloted in 1982 in a limitednumber of polling stations for a by-election andwas finally used country wide for general electionsin 2004 - http://pib.nic.in/elections2009/volume1/Chap-39.pdf (last accessed on 31 January 2011).International Foundation for Electoral Systems 77