Biometric voter registration

According to International IDEA's ICTs in Elections Database,[8] as of 2016, the number of countries adopting biometrics in elections has steadily increased to over 50, with significant differences between regions. "While there are virtually no users in Europe, about half of the countries in Africa and Latin America use this technology in elections."[9] 35 per cent of over 130 surveyed Electoral Management Bodies is capturing biometric data (such as fingerprints or photos) as part of their voter registration process (2016).[1]

Countries which have used Biometric voting registration include Armenia,[10][11] Angola,[12][13] Bangladesh,[14][15] Bhutan,[16] Bolivia,[17][18] Brazil,[19][20] Burkina Faso,[21] Cambodia,[22][23] Cameroon,[24] Chad,[25][26] Colombia,[27][28] Comoros,[29][30] Congo (Democratic Republic of),[31][32] Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire,[33] Dominican Republic,[34] Fiji, Gambia,[35] Ghana,[36] Guatemala, India,[37][38] Iraq, Kenya,[39][40] Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico,[9][41] Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia,[42] Nepal,[43] Nicaragua, Nigeria,[44][45] Panama, Peru,[9] The Philippines,[46][47] Senegal, Sierra Leone,[48][49] Solomon Islands, Somaliland,[50] Swaziland, Tanzania,[51] Uganda,[52][53] Uruguay, Venezuela,[9] Yemen,[54] Zambia,[55] and Zimbabwe.[56][57]

Some promoters of biometric voting registration point out that this technology, if properly customised to the country's needs and well implemented, could offer better accessibility for citizens; help avoiding long queues and waiting times for registration and voting; add simplicity and speed to the election cycle (i.e. voter identification documents can make it easier for polling staff to verify voter details);[6] make voters and Commissions feel confident about the quality of their registry (more accurate, reliable and complete data); improve e-voting security,[58][59] considerably reduce or eliminate multiple registration and multiple voting, while mitigating the risk of impersonation, identity theft, the misuse of records of deceased voters, carousel voting and ballot-box stuffing.[44][1]

On the other hand, those who criticise and disapprove the use of biometrics for voter identification maintain that using biometrics for election purposes raises concerns over voters' privacy, human dignity and governmental disclosure of personal information.[5][60] Some critics go further to claim that biometrics in voting poses a serious threat to democracy, due to fears of violation of the secrecy of the vote (or correlation voter-vote).[61]

The concerns as with any other application of biometrics for identification and authentication can be manifold.[62][3] There is, for example, the possibility of voter disenfranchisement when characteristics typically used to identify or verify voters might become unavailable (e.g. bandaged finger, loss of a finger, failure to acquire due to dirt or fingerprint quality degradation).[1][61] Similarly, there are also claims of potential logistical and procedural "new problems" that biometric identification devices can bring to an election cycle: increasing costs (initial purchase costs of biometric readers and infrastructure, costs linked to maintenance, storage and upgrades) and resources' allocation (human, time, material); additional training of commissions and polling staff, technological failures that could disenfranchise voters; and extra data storage that demands higher security.[4][7]

• Electoral roll
• Electronic identification
• Electronic pollbook
• Voter ID laws