Citizen-Technology for Election Monitoring Making Equal Rights Real IHSP RESEARCH TO POLICY CONFERENCE OMNI Mont-Royal Hotel, Montreal May 1, 2010

Making Rights Right to vote Right to contest elections and to be elected Right to seek, receive and impart information about govt. practices Advance pluralistic, fair, and open political processes Preserve elections as a basis for non- violent competition for governing

Making Equal Rights Advance equality of the vote and nondescrimination Particular attention to: – Malapportionment – Access to run seek office – Barrier to participation for women, the disabled and ethnic and religious minorities

Making Equal Rights Real Goal to evaluate and improve the process Entire electoral calendar Using a variety of increasingly sophisticated methodologies and tactics

data-focused election observation

Impressionistic: Coordinators indicated major problems with missing materials around the country. Anecdotal: We documented 42 cases of polling stations running out of materials. These reports largely came from urban areas where the opposition is typically stronger. Data-focused: Based on comprehensive reports, from a random sample of 1070 polling stations, fewer than 2% of polling stations ran out a materials nationally, and these appear to be evenly distributed between stations that voted for government and those that voted for opposition.

telling the story

new media

data visualization open data

empowering and engaging

hotlines

crowdsourcing

where next?