On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 10:50 AM, Bwana Lawi <mail2lawi@gmail.com> wrote:
I have noted that one of the biggest weaknesses in our electral system (and any system, anyway) is the people.

Can we concieve a system whereby Returning Officers (ROs) are not a link in the chain? A system where my vote goes straight to IEBC (or such body) and maybe prints a slip for confirmation at the polling station?

Something like a touch screen menu, think ATM menus, where I select my candidate and the system posts to IEBC directly.
It can have offline db so that in case there is no connection, the results can be stored locally and then synced with the central server.

All the polling clerks need to do is verify me at the polling station.

This way, we can get final results once the last person votes.

@Lawi, that would be working with the assumption that ALL polling stations will have un-interrupted electricity throughout the voting period. Even in Nairobi, that is not possible. What about the deepest recesses of Turkana.

Note, even solar charged, battery powered laptops failed.

A manual failover is always a good backup plan, paper and pencil.