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Taking Democracy into the Digital Age
Costa Rica, the oldest democracy in central America, is amplifying the voice of the people by moving its voter registration and electoral system into the 21st century. The republic, which has the largest number of computers per capita in the region, is hoping a marriage of technology and democracy will strengthen its civic institutions and safeguard citizens’ ‘stakes’ in their society. To then end, the country’s electoral tribunal has been working with Unisys as its technology partner to put in place a new $4.7m personal identification and voting system for citizens, which includes ‘biometric’ ID cards containing digitized fingerprint and signature images.
Officials say the solution helps electoral authorities verify each voter’s identity, ensuring the integrity of the election process, with the aim of making the voting system more efficient, flexible, and secure. All citizens over 18 among Costa Rica’s population of 3.5m must register to vote and personal ID cards are used for almost everything which requires official validation.
The new cards will have images of the holder’s face, fingertips, and signature electronically captured, comparing the fingerprint images against the entire database to make sure only one record exists for each citizen.
The country is taking its civil register as the basis for its new electronic electoral register, with the intention that all new births will be registered using computer terminals in hospitals themselves, connected to a national database to maintain up-to-date census data. About 6,000 computers have been installed in rural schools, with the aim of a further 5,000 by the end of this year, which would then cover all the country’s schools.
The first step in a huge changeover, ahead of the presidential election in January this year, meant electoral authorities had to convert every one of the existing 2m voter ID photographs to a digital format. Tribunal officials processed 50,000 images per day until the deadline was met, allowing new electoral rolls in each of Costa Rica’s 429 electoral districts to be prepared.
Unisys brought together a broad array of technologies to carry out the transition work, including a fingerprint search match sub-system by identicator; a Datacard ID card production subsystem; Unisys PCs and servers; Hewlett-Packard optical image storage jukebox and document scanners; an Oracle relational database; Microsoft Windows; Symbol technology bar, code readers; Hitachi video cameras and Inforite signature pads.
One aim of the system is to enable citizens to vote from whatever precinct is most convenient for them, not just the one in which they are registered. The voting cards can also incorporate a chip which could then store more of an individual’s personal information such as banking or health details.
In May, Unisys joined Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government to work with researchers «to help federal, state and local government identify and implement information technology applications that are strategic or transformational in nature».
Answer the following questions:
1. How is Costa Rica amplifying the voice of the people?
2. What does a new personal identification and voting system for citizens include?
3. What does the solution help verify?
4. What will the new cards have?
5. Why did Unisys bring together a broad array of technologies?
6. What is the aim of the system?
7. Why did Unisys joined Harward University’s Kennedy School of Government?