United States, Boca Raton – September 6, 2022 – The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of Kenya deployed robust election technology for the country’s 2022 general elections. The system streamlined voter verification and sped the publication of tally reports, helping authorities deliver one of Kenya’s most transparent elections.
An International Election Observation Mission led by the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute commented on the Smartmatic-backed publication of tally reports. In their assessment, they note: “…the IEBC transmitted and posted on its web portal scanned images of the polling station level results and constituency results for the presidential election. This greatly enhanced transparency and accountability of the tabulation process and was a notable improvement over past elections.”
Technology partner Smartmatic provided the IEBC with 14,110 voter identification units to supplement the commission’s existing inventory. In all, 46,229 kits were deployed across all polling stations and 6 additional contingency kits per ward. All kits were configured with Smartmatic’s software to help poll workers perform biometric voter identity.
The technology kits deployed were also used to manage polling station, periodically report turnout, and for the transmission of tally reports images. Relying on a telecommunications network of local providers, the IEBC was able to publish all tally reports for the Presidential race on a public website. This information was available to all stakeholders for auditing purposes.
Smartmatic facilitated a smooth implementation of the technology, providing a host of pre-election services to ensure the proper functioning of the technology platform and other critical support. This included deduplicating the voter database and configuring devices for deployment.
Commenting on the successful deployment of the election technology, the head of the East Africa Community Observer Mission in Kenya, Jakaya Kikwete, said: “The mission commends IEBC for the successful use of the technology in voter registration, voter identification, and the transmission of results.” He also commended IEBC for the level of transparency.
Following the election, nine petitions were filed before the Supreme Court of Kenya. Upon considering all allegations and analyzing all evidence, the court found that the technology deployed did meet the constitutional standards on election integrity, verifiability, security and transparency to guarantee accurate and verifiable results. The robust audit trail produced by Smartmatic’s technology provided institutions with the evidence to corroborate the accuracy and legitimacy of results.
