On 15 May, 2009, the people from Curaçao voted ‘Yes’ to a proposal to gain more autonomy from the Netherlands.
Smartmatic deployed its voting technology platform for this important referendum in the biggest and most populated island of the Netherlands Antilles.
This was the second time the Electoral Council of Curaçao made use of our solution since 2007, when Smartmatic’s voting technology was successfully used in the country’s Insular Elections.
All the audits held during that process showed the accuracy of the results. And according to an Electoral Council spokesperson: “The machines turned out to be very reliable and there was no need to even count what was on paper.”
Scope
Curaçao’s referendum in May, 2009, was held in two languages, Dutch and Papiamentu. Smartmatic provided the technological platform that 120,000 citizens enabled to participate use to vote. In particular we supplied:
- Consulting services for deploying a totalization centre
- 159 voting machines in 106 polling places – plus backup machines
- A data and result collecting centre within the Electoral Council (“Hoofdstembureau”)
- Training for personnel
- Provide equipment maintenance and repair, manuals and other documentation
- Provide technical support during Election Day
- Project management services
Voting instructions
1) Read the questions on the screen
2) Press the buttons that match your choice
3) Confirm your selection using the ‘Vote’ button that appears on the screen
4) Check that the voting receipt matches your choice and put it in the ballot box
Tests
We have always designed our electoral solutions around one fundamental principle: that all parties audit the process before, during and after an election. And the technology platform we created for Curaçao’s 2009 referendum was no different, guaranteeing accurate results that everyone accepts.
In preparation for the May referendum in Curaçao, Smartmatic and the Electoral Council carried out the following tests:
- A quality control test using a sample from the total number of voting machines used in the elections
- A simulation of the election to test the entire technological platform and identify any faults in the system. Also, certain extreme conditions that could occur during Election Day were simulated to test the effectiveness of the whole system