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Association of European Election Officials (ACEEEO)

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ACEEEO Newsletter - October 2019

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1. Conference news

28th Annual Conference and General Assembly meeting of the ACEEEO
24-26 September 2019, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The Annual ACEEEO organized conference was hosted by the Central Election Commission of Slovenia and took place in the heart of the beautiful Ljubljana. With the participation of more than 120 election experts from all around the world, the topics of ‘judicial protection of electoral rights’ on the one hand, and ‘transparency of elections’ on the other have been discussed thoroughly. Participants were from more than 30 countries, representing the most important international organisations in the electoral field as well as electoral management bodies from Europe and Asia. This melting-pot of diverse views, approaches and experiences enabled the participants to better understand these election-related issues. With the help of the speakers, the topics of both practical and theoretical aspects of judicial protection and transparency were presented. Moreover, representatives of electoral management bodies from the EU shared their experiences on the 2019 EP elections.

Judicial protection of electoral rights

On the first conference day the emphasis was put some broad theoretical perspectives as well as on the judicial protection of electoral rights in particular. The first Plenary Session was chaired by Peter Golob (President, State Election Commission of the Republic of Slovenia), discovered the theoretical perspectives of the conference themes.  Jadranka Sovdat’s (Former President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia) speech was delivered by Saša Zagorc (Professor, Ljubljana University) and it embarked upon the implementation of international standards in Slovenia. The next speaker, dr. Bruna Žuber (Assistant, Department of Administrative Law at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana) who spoke about legitimacy of elections and its relationship of the legal background. She was followed by Gaël Martin-Micallef (Legal Adviser at the Division of Elections and Political Parties, Venice Commission), who presented on the findings of the Venice Commission in its comparative studies regarding EDR. Finally, János Mécs (Project Manager, ACEEEO Secretariat) presented on the preliminary results on the ACEEEO EMB survey on EDR.

The second Plenary Session, which also chaired by Peter Golob, tackled the practical perspectives of judicial protection of electoral rights. The first presenter was dr. Erik Kerševan (Supreme Court Judge, Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia), whose presentation revolved around the tensions between the fairness and fastness of electoral procedures. He was followed by Andrej Kmecl, (Judge, Administrative Court Republic of Slovenia), who embarked upon the experiences of the Slovenian judiciary in electoral matters, giving a valuable perspective on how judges approach these questions. He was followed by Ingrid Bicu (National Expert at International IDEA) who presented on democracy and electoral justice, and IDEA’s contribution to is. Finally, Giorgi Sharabidze (Deputy Chairperson, Central Election Commission of Georgia) gave his contribution on the experiences of CEC Georgiain EDR and its relations to the courts.

During the last session on the first day ,(which is chaired by Nina Brumen (Member, State Election Commission of the Republic of Slovenia) the dialogue between EMBs and courts were discussed. The first speaker, Mayya Grishina (Secretary, Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation) presented on the Russian experiences with courts. Ana Rusu (Senior Election Adviser, OSCE /ODIHR) focused on issues related to the judicial protection of rights identified in OSCE/ODIHR election observation missions.

Transparency of elections

The second conference day revolved around the topic of transparency. The first  Session chaired by dr. Janez Pogorelec (Member, State Election Commission of the Republic of Slovenia) put transparency into context with their contributions. The operations of the United Nations were presented by Simon-Pierre Nanitelamio (Deputy Director, United Nations Electoral Assistance Division), showing the perspectives and goals of the UN as well as their implementation. This was followed by Vid Tomič’ (Transparency International Slovenia) contribution that described the main features of the Slovenian local electoral system and the most pressing issues in the field, such as mayors’ abuse of power, or problems of media coverage. Last but not least Anika Geisel (Public Policy Lead for elections in Europe, Facebook - Silver Sponsor of the Conference) presented on Facebooks’ policies regarding the protection of integrity of the EP elections by for example fighting fake-accounts, false news and pursuing transparency.

The last Plenary Session that was chaired by ACEEEO honorary member Paul DeGregorio dealt with the topic of the practical perspectives of transparency. The first presenter was Dr. Annette M. Fath-Lihic (EUSR Chief Political Adviser/Executive Coordinator, European Union Office in Kosovo/EU Special Representative) who, in her presentation showed the key challenges and opportunities to the future of election observation missions. She was followed by Nazarali Aripov (member of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda of the Kyrgyz Republic), who spoke about the good practices, challenges and opportunities in the Kyrgyz experience. Finally, Beata Martin-Rozumiłowicz (Regional Director, IFES) presented the regional election justice networks, showing among others the emerging trends in this field.

 

Lessons learned from the 2019 European Parliament elections

With the moderation and contribution of dr. Janez Pogorelec (Member, State Election Commission of the Republic of Slovenia) six ACEEEO members shared their experiences regarding the organization of the EP elections. Dimitar Dimitrov (Member, Central Election Commission of the Republic of Bulgaria) presented on the Bulgarian, Damir Kontrec (Vice-President, State Electoral Commissionof the Republic of Croatia) on the Croatian, Ritvars Eglājs (Secretary, Central Election Commission of Latvia) on the Latvian, Kristina Ivanauskaite-Pettinari (Head of Training and Communication Unit, Central Election Commission of Lithuania) on the Lithuanian, Manja Toplak (Head of Office, European Parliament, Directorate-General for Communication, EP Liasion Office in Slovenia) on the Slovenian, and Zsombor Vajda (Vice-President, Permanent Electoral Authority of Romania) on the Romanian experiences.

As the result of this fruitful discussion, participants adopted the Ljubljana Declaration on Judicial Protection of Electoral Rights and Transparency of Elections that is now available on our webpage, as well as presentations, video footage and pictures.

The recommendations of the conference together with the agenda, speakers’ biographies and presentations, and the video taken at the event are available on our website (www.aceeeo.org/en/events/28th-annual-conference-24-26-september-2019-ljubljana-slovenia). Also, please visit the photo gallery at the https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b1mp6t15fd0ij3l/AACtfRIppmcYh5LO4WV4T8r_a?dl=0.

 

General Assembly and Executive Board Meeting

The conference was preceded by the Executive Board and the General Assembly meetings. The General Assembly reviewed the annual report on the ACEEEO activities, approved the annual financial report for the year 2018, reviewed the annual membership fee, decided on Honorary Memberships, and voted on the letter of intention of the CEC of Georgia to host the next year’s conference. According to the decision of the General Assembly, the 29th ACEEEO Annual Conference will take place in September 2020 in Georgia.

 

New Honorary Members

The General Assembly  accepted  the honorary membership of Arnis Cimdars, former Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission of Latvia; Ivilina Aleksieva-Robinson, former Chairperson of the Central Electoral Commission of Bulgaria; Iurie Ciocan, former Chairperson of the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Moldova; and Mykhaylo Okhendovsky, former Chairperson of the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine.

 

New Executive Board

The General Assembly elected the new Executive Board for the next 3 years. For the seven places there were eight nominees, and as the result of the voting the new EB has the following members: Bulgaria, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Romania.

 

The Association of European Election Officials gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the following organizations in 2019:

Facebook Inc.

Democracy Counts

Democracy Counts recognises that the democratic process is crucial to our way of life. We will provide high quality niche products and services that save time, and cost, whilst increasing both security and transparency to our clients' business process.

Democracy Counts is a business that truly understands the end to end business processes that affect the Democratic and Elections Cycle. Consequently, our products and solutions are aimed at driving efficiencies in the processes through continuous improvement, whist providing fully audited management information, and subsequent security. We will leverage the experience of our clients and our staff in order to provide excellence in Customer Service and innovative development in order to achieve our aspirations of ‘World Class’ status."

We provide professional electoral services and state of the art electoral management software to UK Local Authorities and UK Central Government as well as managed referendums and ballot services to public, private and community organisations.

We have the systems, processes, breadth and depth of knowledge, skills and experience to deliver a "closed loop" solution to support you through the election cycle. We already provide both print and mail production of election stationery as well as election management and postal vote software to UK local authorities, NHS Trusts and Private business.

Our Elector Centre suite of products, the software underpinning our electoral services, has been developed using market leading technology. They are modular, scaleable and fully integrated, providing the most extensive range of democratic software solutions available in the world.

 

Minsait

 

Modern Democracy

Modern Democracy is an award-winning leader in the delivery of elections software and services. We work with Local and National Governments to reduce the associated risks with running elections.

Our Modern Polling solution has been designed in partnership with our customers. Providing real time information throughout polling day, it gives greater control and visibility of all polling stations. Automated reporting gives 100% accuracy and simplifies the job of the Poll Clerk. 

This secure, fully compliant, cloud-based platform is cost effective, easy to deploy and streamlines manual election processes for the voter and the elections team.

 

Polys

Polys is a secure online voting platform based on blockchain technology. It is a reliable, and easy-to-use service for elections of all levels. Polys is designed to change the way people vote. It is easy to set up and use and is a product that provides maximum safety and transparency for its users. We believe that Polys is what elections should look like in our hi-tech on-demand world. Polys can be used for elections of different levels for several reasons. First, the blockchain and crypto algorithms that we use make the voting extremely secure and, as a consequence, it is suitable for elections of the highest level. Polys comprises an admin panel for poll deployment and a client application for casting votes. No specific training or IT literacy is needed. Polys is a flexible application and can be easily customized for your particular needs. Voters can vote online via desktop computers or smartphones. Another key feature of the Polys system is the availability of voting machines. Obviously, the switch from paper to online voting cannot happen instantly, but to make the transition as smooth as possible, Polys has designed voting machines that are also based on blockchain technology.

 

SLI Compliance

About SLI ComplianceSM

In today’s world, system security is a top priority in any voting and election program.  So, how can you be sure that your voting systems and technologies are secure?  Fortunately, there’s SLI Compliance. 

SLI ComplianceSM is a globally recognized, independent voting system test lab with more than 17 years of independent testing experience in voting systems and process.  We offer end-to-end security test methods designed to validate the security and privacy of all of all aspects of your voting system.  In addition,  SLI Compliance performs security analysis of the source code using automated tools to identify vulnerabilities and security weaknesses. 

With SLI Compliance, you can be confident in the accuracy and quality performance of your voting systems and components.  

Our Services:

  • Security Testing
  • Source Code Review
  • Voting System Standards & Requirements Development
  • Configuration Verification
  • Document Review
  • Functional Testing
  • Hardware Testing
  • Electronic Poll Book Testing
  • Election Procedures Assessment

WHY SLI COMPLIANCE?

SLI is an accredited Voting System Test Laboratory (VSTL) under the auspices of the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP Lab Code 200733-0: TESTING)  of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in partnership with the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC).  SLI is also recognized as an International Certification Entity (ICE) by the Republic of the Philippines.  Additionally, under our ISO/IEC 17025 accredited and ISO 9001:2015 certified status, our voting methodology has been audited for compliance against strict NIST NVLAP standards and is utilized uniformly across our many projects.

For more information please visit  www.slicompliance.com.

Contact: Traci Mapps, Director – SLI Compliance (tmapps@slicompliance.com or 1-844-754-8683)

 

Voatz

Voatz is an award-winning mobile elections platform backed by military-grade security and cutting-edge technology (including biometrics and a blockchain-based infrastructure). Voatz enables voting via compatible smartphones and tablets to increase accessibility and security in elections. Since 2016, Voatz has run 40 elections with states, cities, towns, state political parties, colleges and universities, and unions. Voatz ran the first mobile blockchain vote in U.S. Federal Election history in partnership with the State of West Virginia to empower deployed military personnel and overseas citizens to vote in the 2018 Primary Elections and the 2018 Midterm Elections.
Voatz is focused on making the voting process more accessible and secure by offering an additional voting method for those voters who are unable to vote conveniently using the traditional voting methods. Voatz strongly believes that all citizens must be able to vote regardless of their circumstances.

 

2. Upcoming elections in the ACEEEO region

20 October 2019

Republic of Moldova

General Local and Early Parliamentary

27 October 2019

Bulgaria

Local

10 November 2019

Romania

Presidential

17 November 2019

Belarus

Early Parliamentary

December 2019

Croatia

Presidential

(at the latest) March 2020

Slovakia

Parliamentary

April 2020

Serbia

Parliamentary

October 2020

Georgia

Parliamentary

11 and 25 October 2020

Lithuania

Parliamentary

2020

Azerbaijan

Parliamentary

2020

Belarus

Presidential

2020

Croatia

Parliamentary

2020

Kyrgyzstan

Parliamentary

2020

Kazakhstan

Parliamentary

2020

North Macedonia

Parliamentary

2020

Poland

Presidential

2020 (or early 2021)

Romania

Parliamentary