Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation
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Technical Cooperation

Audit of the Dominican Republic Automated Vote

Dominican Republic auditing

On February 21, 2020, the Central Electoral Board (JCE in Spanish) of the Dominican Republic requested the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (SG / OAS) to form a group of experts to audit the automated voting process used for the suspended February 16 municipal elections.

Dominican Republic - auditing automated voting process

The Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, accepted the JCE’s request –which echoed petitions from the national government and from a number of candidates and political parties— and instructed the Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation (DECO) of the Secretariat for Strengthening Democracy (SSD) to make preparations to conduct a rigorous audit of the highest technical standards of the automated voting process; the results of which would be comprehensive and binding.

The team of international experts began their field work on March 3 and ended on March 17. The technical team worked independently and received from JCE officials all the information and equipment necessary to conduct the corresponding analysis.

Dominican Republic auditing report

On April 14, 2020, the GS/OAS presented the audit report to the JCE of the Dominican Republic, which identified the reasons that prevented the correct implementation of the automated voting system. 

The work of the technical audit team concluded that the problems related to implementation of the automated voting system were the result of mismanagement by the JCE IT department. A software defect, plus the lack of tools for detecting or preventing the malfunction in downloading the electronic candidate lists, as well as the inability to mitigate these issues in a timely manner, also reflected the lack of protocols and failure to apply good practices. The audit team did not find evidence of external attacks, sabotage, or attempted fraud.

The full report with the respective annexes can be found at the following here.

Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation

1889 F St., N.W.
Washington, D.C., 20006
E-mail: deco@oas.org
Phone: (202) 370-4526
Fax: (202) 458-6250