CARACAS, Venezuela--()--For the second time this year, Venezuelan voters exercised their right to elect State Governors and representatives to Legislative Councils through a sophisticated electronic e-voting system that enabled electoral authorities to announce the official results in only 3 hours after the polls closed.
The modern technology used in the e-voting platform was designed, manufactured and implemented by Smartmatic, the leading developer of electronic voting systems in the world. Smartmatic’s system has been in use in Venezuela since 2004.
“Because our system is fully automated, Venezuela was able to conduct today’s voting to elect Governors in 23 states and regional officials only 70 days after the nation’s presidential election,” said Antonio Mugica, CEO of Smartmatic. “From the registration of candidates, to the verification of the systems through early auditing, to the immediate validation and broadcasting of the results, our e-voting system worked flawlessly”, Mugica said.
Despite so many different voting locations participating in a national election of 260 offices, the National Electoral Council was able to broadcast the first official bulletin only 3 hours after the polling stations closed, with 95% of the precinct counts transmitted.
The challenges of conducting two major nationwide elections in just over two months time were daunting, but the Smartmatic technology enabled election officials, candidates, representatives of the political parties, and 634 national and international third party observers to work together and ensure an efficient voting process that enjoyed wide acceptance.
In the weeks leading to the election, more than a dozen audits were conducted to verify the reliability of the system. At the end of Election Day, citizen audits were carried out to over 52% of the ballot boxes, without any incidents or inconsistencies.
“Smartmatic is proud to continue playing an essential role in ensuring a smooth and successful election process in Venezuela and in a number of countries around the world,” Mugica said.
About Smartmatic
Smartmatic is a multinational company that designs and deploys technological solutions aimed at helping governments fulfill, in the most efficient way, their commitments to citizens. It is the electoral technology supplier with the largest proven experience in the United States, Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.