The Biometric UXtra: a new rubric about UX design

Five questionable cases of election fraud and how they could’ve been avoided

Deceased people still registered to vote, bad ballot design or even honest mistakes can raise eyebrows about the integrity of elections. Even more so in these times, when it has become easy to enrage the masses into believing the system is crooked – as we saw in the US after the 2020 presidential elections, when […]

Fast, compact and standardised: the Minex benchmark’s potential for improving elections everywhere

Contributor Imagine being in charge of building a list of all eligible voters in your home country from scratch – a task crucial for preserving democracy. Yet there is almost no starting point of reference because the citizen registry is incomplete and riddled with duplicates, minors or deceased people. You and your team opt for […]

Biometrics has brought faster, modernised elections to Albania

Albania revolutionised the way people vote in the country. The new system sped up the elections – reducing them from two days to just one. So how has the voting process changed?

Behind the scenes: Safeguarding “one person, one vote” for Guinea’s millions of registered voters

Attempts to change political regimes in African countries have often failed due to disputed elections. In Guinea, biometric technology has helped to create a reliable voters list – an essential prerequisite for legitimate elections.

Biometrics to the rescue: helping democracies to build elections that can be trusted

Data shows that the number of democracies in the world is shrinking. Many countries are struggling on a precarious path between democracy and autocracy, while in long-established Western democracies fears over the denial of election results are becoming more and more frequent.

Six must-haves for a trusted election via smartphones

We go online to send money, manage our health, take classes and buy groceries – so why are we still unable to vote via our smartphones? Governments often cite risks of possible hacks and security breaches, which are said to have greater potential to affect online systems than traditional processes. But is that really the […]

Biometrics remains essential for sustaining democracy and digitisation of the African continent

About Abdul-Gamal Toure Gamal spent six years working as a database administrator for the electoral register of Togo and Mali, one year as a manager of electoral agents in the field, and four years as an independent consultant. He’s carried out various missions within international organisations such as the OIF, the EU, and CENI-Guinea, all […]

From elephant rides to space voters: Five unusual ways of voting around the world

A journey into the polling extravaganzas around the world. Solid democracies have one goal: ensuring that every citizen will be able to execute their right to vote – regardless of where they live, their gender, social status or ethnicity. Sometimes, however, this is no easy task for the electoral commissions. Geography, population density, conflicts and […]

From Indonesia to Germany: why so many democracies don’t have fair elections

Election inequality and voter suppression are issues that haunt democracies around the world. But shouldn’t democracy ensure that every eligible citizen is able to cast their vote?