Electronic Voting
Electoral bodies around the world have increasingly begun to use electronic voting (e-voting) technologies. The Carter Center and the international election observation community recognize these emergent technologies as one of the largest challenges facing their work. By its very nature, e-voting technology limits transparency as many aspects of vote tabulation occur invisibly. Observation organizations have had little experience observing elections with e-voting technology until recently.
To address these challenges, The Carter Center has begun a multi-year collaborative initiative focused on facilitating a greater understanding of automated and e-voting technology and is developing a methodology for observing elections where electronic voting technology is used. The new methodology will provide the Center with a framework for conducting more meaningful assessments of electoral processes with e-voting systems.
The Carter Center hosted an initial workshop on the challenges posed by electronic technologies in March 2005. As a result of the meeting, a draft framework for observing e-voting technology was developed.
The Carter Center hosted an initial workshop on the challenges posed by electronic technologies in March 2005. As a result of the meeting, a draft framework for observing e-voting technology was developed. An updated version of the methodology was presented for review, discussion, and amendment, at a November 2006 meeting of e-voting experts and observation organizations at The Carter Center.
In addition, in December 2006, the Center deployed a small, targeted mission to Venezuela to observe the use of electronic voting in the country's 2006 presidential election and to conduct a preliminary test of the draft methodology. The Carter Center produced two reports to summarize lessons learned: Developing a Methodology for Observing Electronic Voting and Observing the 2006 Presidential Elections in Venezuela: Final Report of the Technical Mission.
The Carter Center continues to pursue the initiative on automated and e-voting technology. The targeted observation mission in Venezuela was the first of three technical missions that the Center will conduct to refine the e-voting observation methodology. This work, in conjunction with the larger goals of the Democratic Election Standards Project, aims to provide the observation community with a more systematic and comprehensive methodology for observing electoral processes with e-voting technology and systems.
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