Ballot scanners and biometric voter identification devices will be used at all polling stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, following a pilot backed by the European Union two years ago.
The rollout was presented at a conference in Sarajevo titled “Trust in the Electoral Process: Integrity in a Changing Context”, opened by EU Ambassador and EU Special Representative Luigi Soreca and the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Central Election Commission (CEC), Jovan Kalaba, the EU Delegation to the country reported on Monday, cited by the European External Action Service (EEAS).
The equipment is intended to speed up the reporting of results and reduce electoral manipulation, with the scanners used to record paper ballots and the biometric devices used to confirm a voter’s identity.
Soreca said the technology could help reduce manipulation, but added that election integrity also depends on the work of domestic institutions as well as civil society and independent media in monitoring and scrutiny.
Kalaba said the new equipment would not change how citizens vote — by paper ballot — but would introduce “stricter accountability” and “complete transparency.”
How the system works at the polling station
Kalaba said biometric identification would address proxy voting — when someone votes on behalf of another person — and that scanners would reduce “intentional counting errors” and provide preliminary results immediately after polling stations close.
A demonstration at Europe House in Sarajevo showed the process from biometric identification through to scanning and recording ballots.
Dario Jovanovic, a project manager at the Coalition “Pod Lupom”, said the technology would prevent voters from voting twice or voting in another person’s name, and said scanners would store an image of each ballot, which he said would make later changes harder.
The conference also included two panel discussions on the practical implications of the technology and on issues including premature campaigning and misuse of public resources, with participants saying technology alone cannot guarantee trust in elections.
