Presidential Elections 2006
Venezuela
Audits
Before this presidential election, the CNE Electoral Authority and Smartmatic organized tests of the automated voting system. During most of these audits of the software and hardware —as well as of the transmission and results tallying—technical representatives of the main political organizations were present to verify that the voting system was functioning properly.
END2END Test (October 13th, 2006)
Smartmatic performed a quality control test on a sample of 200 voting machines (120 SAES3000 and 80 SAES3300), which were to be used during the Presidential Elections. Votes were input continuously and tallied afterwards.
Voting software audit (October 11th to 27th, 2006)
Technicians from the political parties and the Electoral Authority evaluated the system's programming for over two weeks. Smartmatic representatives explained the entire process required to prepare the voting machines so they could be analyzed thoroughly. Representatives of each political party were given a list of the digital signatures of every machine so they could certify that the software used in the electronic booths was the same one they checked during the audit.
Hardware audit (October 12th and 13th, 2006)
Technicians from the political parties and the CNE dismantled a number of machines in order to check their physical components: motherboards, network cards, tactile membranes and touch sensitive screens.
Engineering Test (October 29th, 2006)
The CNE validated the technological infrastructure through which the electoral data was to be transmitted; i.e., fixed, cellular and satellite telephony. The test included 325 municipal assemblies from all over the country, in which 725 voting machines were used. An additional test of a further 400 machines was also carried out.
Voting trial (November 5th, 2006)
With a participation of 18,599 voters in five thousand pilot voting centers the test was 98% effective. The test also allowed oversight officials to simulate potential failures and to design possible contingency plans.
Closing audit (December 3rd, 2006)
At the end of the Election Day a closing audit was performed, which consisted of opening over 54% of the ballots (where voter verifiable paper trails were available) and comparing the final printed version with the transmitted voting registry. Over 17,000 closing audits were carried out, 100% of which confirmed that the results in the voting machines were exact matches of the printed vouchers. Both the Organization of American States and the European Union, together with other international observers present during these audits, agreed that the SAES voting machines are highly reliable and efficient.
