Presentation on the Electronically Managed Polling Station. Ministry of the Interior. Spain. 7th European Conference of Electoral Management Bodies “EVERY VOTER COUNTS” June 2010

What  The electronically managed polling station is a set of information technology provided to make it easier for polling station staff to carry out their duties on the election day. 1 ? Why was it used at the European Parliament Elections held on June 2009  Because in EPE there is only one electoral constituency (a nationwide one), therefore the counting of the votes is more simple. ? THE ELECTRONICALLY MANAGED POLLING STATION

Where  Three cities: Lleida, Pontevedra and Salamanca How does the new system work  Each polling station had: Polling stationsMembers of polling stationsElectors ► PRINTER ► LAP TOP WITH A NATIONAL ID CARD READER AND A GPRS MODEM ► OPTICAL BARCODE READER ? ? ► BALLOT PAPERS WITH PRINTED BARCODES THE ELECTRONICALLY MANAGED POLLING STATION

3  The “president” of the polling station inserts in the lap top the USB memory stick that contains (encrypted) that polling station electors’ list, provided by the Electoral Roll Office (Oficina del Censo Electoral).  The poll opening form is filled out using the laptop. Data is directly captured from the electors’ list. (Polling station members’ names and data are in that list.)  The poll opening form is printed, and signed, and a copy of it is electronically send to the Centro de Recogida de Información-CRI- ( Information Compilation Center) CRIS are located at each one of the 52 Central Government Delegations, one by provincia, to centralize information related to the elections during polling day. (I.e. opening of the polling stations, turnout, preliminary results...) PROCEDURE POLLING STATION SET UP AND OPENING

4  If the elector identifies him/herself with the non electronic National ID the polling station staff will search his/her data in the Laptop (i.e. search by name, surname or NID number).  If the elector has an electronic National ID (DNI-e), he/she inserts it into the card reader device and introduces the security pin. VOTING  Quick and easy search in the electors’ list. PROCEDURE

5 Once the vote has been cast, the software automatically includes the voter’s name and ID number in the numbered voters’ list. VOTING  Easy: the numbered voters’ list is printed. (No handwriting needed.)  The polling station may print ballot papers whenever this is considered to be necessary. PROCEDURE

6 Each envelope that contains the postal vote includes: the electoral envelope with the ballot paper the elector chose, a copy of the ID (only in Out of country voting) and a certificate issued by the Electoral Roll Office. This certificate had a barcode to identify the elector. The optical barcode reader allows for the reading of those data and the identification of the voter in the electors’ list. POSTAL VOTE IS INCORPORATED  Inmediate identification of the postal voters in the electors’ list. PROCEDURE

7 POLL CLOSING AND COUNTING OF THE VOTES  The ballot box is opened and each ballot paper is read with the optical barcode reader.  Thus:  the vote counting sheet / form, that contains preliminary results, is automatically filled out, without errors;  the incident report form is filled out and data is sent.  The USB memory stick and the laptop hard disk are erased. PROCEDURE

8  The EMPS (CAE) is a system supervised by:  The EMPS is adapted to the Electoral Law provissions. No legal reform was needed. Organic Law 5/1985 on the General Election Regime (LOREG).  The EMPS makes the most of the ICTs to improve electoral management. PREMISES The Central Electoral Commission The Congress of Deputies (1st Chamber) Constitutional Committee

9 With provides more guarantees and security. No room for possible errors. More effective. The voter’s name is now easier to find in the electors’ list than with the traditional system. Data (poll opening information, turnout information and preliminary results) are sent by electronic means to the CRIS, instead of sending them by phone or PDAs. Interesting: Center for Social Research evaluation study on the EMPS. More ecofriendly and cost effective. Less election materials are needed (i.e. ballot papers can be printed in the polling stations). The electronically managed polling station is a system... MAIN ADVANTAGES

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