For these municipal elections, the Supreme Tribunal of Elections will implement electronic voting in Costa Rica. Learn more details about this.

Indeed, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal has committed to the implementation of the electronic voting system as a pilot plan for the upcoming municipal elections in February.

The objective of this plan is to facilitate the closing of the voting, speeding up the preliminary count and the issuance of closing minutes. This would reduce the time to communicate the election results.

In fact, in the 2018 elections, the Tribunal was only able to process 94% of the votes. The percentage decreased to 89% in the 2022 elections. For Héctor Fernández this is due, in part, to the difficulties of the political parties in finding collaborators in the polling stations. Something that electronic voting intends to address.

How Does It Work?

This plan is focused on the elections of mayors, aldermen and trustees. Three ballots are needed with traditional voting, with electronic voting only one is needed.

The Tribunal’s plan will be implemented in 499 polling stations distributed in 25 cantons throughout the country. This represents less than 10% of the total number of polling stations nationwide.

This means that electronic voting in Costa Rica will be an opportunity for about 320,000 voters at a cost of 1.9 million dollars.

The system, called single electronic ballot, requires a voting machine to digitally record the vote, which is printed on a ballot with a chip that stores the election. It also requires identity verification, the delivery of a chip ballot and radiofrequency.

It is important to point out that the voting machine has no storage devices and is not connected to any network, guaranteeing the security of personal data.

Advantages and disadvantages of electronic voting

Since the 1960s, the electronic voting system has been used in some countries around the world. At present, only a few countries have incorporated electronic voting into their electoral system. What are its advantages and disadvantages?

Advantages

  • Easy accessibility
  • Security: the choice cannot be deleted or edited
  • Increased accuracy: more precise and instantaneous results
  • Increased transparency: you can see how votes are counted

Disadvantages

  • Poor staff experience
  • Vulnerable and sensitive equipment: equipment is exposed to failures

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