Strengthening the Integrity of Voter Identification Through Fingerprint Authentication

Situation

Innovatrics technology played a significant role in increasing the transparency and efficiency of the 2016 general elections in Uganda through the modernization of the election process. The modernization consisted of the tailored biometric voter verification solution delivered by our partner, Smartmatic.

Challenge

The Electoral Commission of Uganda needed a central system to store and manage the biographic and biometric information of all registered voters. Poll workers should be able to validate the identity of voters before they could vote to prevent identity-related election fraud.

Our Solution

Our software ID Kit Pro Server was integrated into a Central Management Identity System to process the enrolled fingerprints. ID Kit Mobile was installed into 32 000 Android biometric devices to secure the fast and accurate fingerprint authentication of more than 15 million registered voters.

Results

Thanks to Innovatrics technology, poll workers at more than 28,010  poll stations, were able to reliably validate the identity of voters by comparing their fingerprints with those stored on the central system. Verification of the fingerprints at the poll station ensured that only eligible citizens exercised their right to vote and that such persons did not vote more than once for the same elections.

Badru Kiggunu, Chairman of Uganda´s Electoral Commission said that  the use of biometrics for verification and authentication at the polling station represents the best solution in strengthening the integrity of voter identification during the polling process.