United States, Boca Raton – May 20, 2021 – The first half of 2021 saw Smartmatic technologies and services successfully used to support seven elections on three continents. It did so with election technology, systems integration, warehousing, logistics, recruiting and training, and Help Desk operations. These facilitated voter registration and elections that were fast, accurate and trusted in the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Albania, Zambia, Uganda and the US.
“This again proves Smartmatic’s global experience is unparalleled in the election industry,” said Antonio Mugica, Smartmatic’s CEO. “That experience allowed us to manage multiple massive deployments even as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to challenge election management bodies and voters alike.”
London
Working with partner CGI, the primary contractor to the Greater London Authority, Smartmatic ensured the count for the London Mayoral and London Assembly elections was a success, processing approximately 7.9 million ballot papers (nearly 10.5 million votes) over two days. The counting period was extended to allow for COVID restrictions, including reduced staff and social distancing. Authorities published results on its public server in real-time. London has more than 6.1 million registered voters.
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, America’s largest voting jurisdiction, again deployed its Smartmatic-built VSAP ballot marking devices, this time for two separate local elections. Following massive deployment for the 2020 general election, the devices were used in a primary and a special election just months apart. Both deployments were limited to local vote centers in the immediate areas involved in the vote. Smartmatic provided deployment logistic services as well as Help Desk support.
Bulgaria
In April, Ciela Norma, the primary partner to Bulgaria’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC), deployed 9,600 Smartmatic A4-517 voting machines nationwide for a parliamentary election. Working with Ciela, Smartmatic also provided backend services and support functions, such as Help Desk. Smartmatic delivered all its equipment and services in less than four months. Bulgaria’s CEC has been working since 2014 to introduce election technology to the country.
Albania
Albania’s Central Election Commission (CEC) selected Smartmatic to provide 5,538 biometric voter authentication kits to about 3,500 polling places for the 2021 election. Smartmatic also recruited and trained more than 460 election workers and provided extensive backend, logistics and voter-education services. In addition, Smartmatic provided its A4-517 tabletop touchscreen voting machine for a limited deployment at 32 polling places. Smartmatic was the only company that could complete the four-month voter-authentication deployment and six-week voting installation.
Zambia
Smartmatic continued to help the Election Commission of Zambia (ECZ) prepare the General elections scheduled for August 2021. Earlier this year, the company assisted authorities in conducting registry de-duplication to ensure a clean and reliable voter database.
In 2020, Smartmatic provided registration services, training and 2,900 portable biometric kits to register voters. The kits are equipped to capture voters’ biometric and biographical information, including personal data, fingerprints, facial photograph and signature.
Uganda
Smartmatic assisted the government of Uganda to expand and update its nationwide voter authentication system. Smartmatic provided 38,500 biometric voter authentication kits; a central system to integrate, manage and administer kits; warehousing; installation, configuration and testing; call center services; and field logistics. Smartmatic also provided training for thousands of employees, including headquarter operators, field operators, support technicians and EC system administrators. This effort registered about 3 million new voters.
