Georgia’s election body: American company’s audit “confirms successful completion” of observation of parliamentary vote

Natia Ioseliani, the Spokesperson of the Central Election Commission of Georgia, on Thursday said the American auditing company Pro V&V had delivered results of the third and final stage of its compliance audit of the parliamentary elections held in Georgia last month, “confirming the successful completion” of the observation of the vote and revealing “no problems”.

Ioseliani cited  the report as saying the Commission had “successfully implemented” procedures used in previous eight pilot projects for the introduction of electronic voting, extending them across the country for the first time in the elections.

Pro V&V confirmed that the processes and procedures for conducting the election were conducted appropriately, with the staff being well-trained. For the first nationwide implementation of the new electronic voting system, the staff were adequately prepared and effectively managed the processes, which were closely monitored by Pro V&V. Voters were able to successfully register their choices”, she said.

The audit examined voter verification machines, vote-counting devices and tablet computers used during the elections, while the company also “closely observed” the election, focusing on the work of precinct committee members, technical staff responsible for machine maintenance, and voters themselves, Ioseliani said.

The company conducted the compliance audit in three stages, with the first stage involving source code verification and functional regression testing, and the second phase focusing on configuration auditing and verification of necessary files. The third stage confirmed that all voter lists on CEC servers matched those loaded onto the  devices, with “no duplication” of voters detected.

• Georgia’s election body says American company audit confirms electronic voting devices “functioned reliably”

The report also confirmed that the voting system was “secure”, with “one vote per voter and no possibility of altering or changing votes once cast”. The two initial checks also confirmed “consistent voter numbers”, while the third check showed “zero” duplication, it added.

Ioseliani noted the report had been made public and was available on the CEC website.