August 15, 2004 was a watershed in the history of Venezuela – a day that would change the course of the country and capture the world’s attention.

On the morning of the Presidential Recall Referendum, the citizens of Venezuela were given the opportunity to decide whether or not they wanted President Chavez to continue his presidency or step down.

The recall vote – which was overseen by the Carter Center and the Organization of American States – was defeated.

Smartmatic was one of several electoral technology providers that participated in the bidding – conducted by Venezuela’s electoral commission (CNE) – to update the automated voting system.

After evaluating all the proposals, the CNE chose the SBC Consortium, which, in its opinion, offered a technological platform that was secure, auditable and easy to update. It also provided the best value, logistics and operational quality.

The SBC Consortium was made up of Smartmatic, which provided the voting technology, Bitza Software, responsible for the auditing processes, and CANTV, which ran the telecommunication infrastructure, logistics, equipment installation and technical personnel.

Scope

• Smartmatic was responsible for developing, distributing, installing and deploying the election’s voting technology platform
• This included the voting hardware and software, as well as the counting, backup, transmission and tally of electoral results
• A total of 19,664 SAES-3000 touchscreen voting machines were used throughout the country, with more than 1,600 backup machines (between one and three per voting precinct)
• There were 8,394 voting centers around the country, 4,766 of which were automated. And, because the voting machines were easy to use, voters were able to cast their ballots quickly, secure in the knowledge that they would be able to check their votes were recorded properly, by checking them on a paper receipt, before placing them in the ballot box
• The international observers, the Electoral Authority and the politicians involved in the elections validated the pre and post-electoral audits provided by the automated system and accepted the results. Despite the socio-political tensions, and the indisputable polarization of the electorate generated by the referendum itself, the electoral solution earned the respect and trust of all parties. Smartmatic is proud to have provided accurate, reliable, and auditable electoral technology

Audits

Before and after the elections, various parties performed a battery of tests on the software and hardware of the voting machines. Plus close scrutiny was also applied to the counting platform, as well as to backup and transmission of the results. And on June 26th, engineering tests were performed to verify that data was being transmitted and tallied correctly.

A national electoral drill was also performed on July 17th, 2004, to satisfy the formal prerequisite of the CNE and the SBC Consortium. The test was open to the public in some voting centers, not just to familiarize voters with the new technology, but also to run tests under the same kind of conditions that prevail on Election Day. The system worked perfectly; the test was 100% successful.

Then 72 hours before the election was to take place, a pre-audit was performed in order to evaluate the technical and logistic functioning of the system. The aim was to ensure that Smartmatic’s technology worked in every area of the country, to correct any last-minute details that may have been overlooked and to determine what actions, if any, should be taken if unforeseen problems should occur.

Finally, selective auditing was performed after voting places were closed, to ensure that the electronic results tallied with the printed votes in the ballot boxes. All of these evaluations were carried out in the presence of international observers, witnesses from the CNE, as well as members of both opposition and pro-government parties.

Voting instructions

1) Read the question on the screen

2) Touch the button that matches your answer

3) Confirm your election by pressing ‘Vote’ on the screen

4) Check that your printed voting receipt matches what the machine registered and put it in the ballot box

Why was Smartmatic’s technology better?

Unlike Venezuela’s older voting system, which used optical scanners to read paper ballots, Smartmatic’s voting technology provided a Direct Recording Electronic system (DRE), with touchscreens and voter-verified paper audit trails.

With this system – which was developed for and deployed specifically for this referendum – the voting process is completely automated, affording more benefits than the previous, partially-automated system

For this referendum, a computer, or input device, records the vote and then securely transmits the results electronically to the tallying center, where votes are counted almost instantaneously. The voting machines in this type of system have integrated printers that provide a receipt, which voters then check for accuracy before placing in the ballot box. So the system was fast, accurate and auditable.

There were other reasons for replacing the old voting system. Costs for storage, spare parts and maintenance were high, as were the licensing costs to use the machines. More important, perhaps, was the fact that the old machines didn’t comply with Venezuela’s Organic Law of Suffrage and Political Participation, which states: “the voting, scrutinizing, tallying and adjudication processes must be carried out in an automated way.”

There are yet still more reasons why this change in the electoral technology was a good option for Venezuela:1) The contract between the Venezuelan Electoral Council and Smartmatic not only provided a safe and secure electronic voting system, but also provided for an experienced team to supervise the organization and execution of the project.2) The use of the new technology saved the nation anywhere from 20 to 30 million US dollars, thanks to greatly reduced printing costs, much lower maintenance expenses, and the elimination of licensing fees.3) Smartmatic’s voting system, unlike its predecessor, offered a completely transparent process which is 100% auditable. It is completely immune to manipulation, alteration, or any other kind of interference.