Civil society and other parties have brought lawsuit against the IEBC demanding the use of both printed and electronic voter registers.
Their concern is that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has said that there will only be electronic registration of voters at polling stations using the KIEMS kits.
The fear is of disenfranchising voters or allowing unrecorded voting if those kits fail.
Voter fraud is actually more difficult with digital systems as there is always an electronic trail to follow up. Manual registers are more easily tampered with. So digital registers should be the preference in an either-or situation.
However civil society would prefer that both digital and printed registers continue in parallel to minimise the risk of electoral fraud.
But this concern seems to be based on a misunderstanding. The IEBC will provide each polling station with the preloaded register of local voters which is the same as the printed IEBC data registration database. No internet connection is needed.
If fingerprint recognition fails, then alphanumeric entries will allow the polling stations staff to identify voters before they vote.
IEBC should now explain itself more clearly as it appears this misunderstanding can be easily cleared up.
Quote of the day: "Don't talk to me about atrocities in war; all war is an atrocity."
Lord Herbert Kitchener
The English field-marshal was born on June 24, 1850
