huhuonline.com/index.php/more-news1/5182-2015-election-things-to-know-about-inecs-card-readers



Question 1: Why use Card Readers?
Answer: For the first time in Nigeria’s
electoral history, electronic voter
authentication system, with the aid of smart
card readers, is being deployed for the 2015
general elections. Using Card Readers has
enormous advantages, which include:
1. Once configured, the Card Reader can
only read Permanent Voter Cards
(PVCs) issued by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Any person that shows up at the
polling unit without a PVC or with a
card not issued by INEC will not be
able to vote.
2. The Card Reader reads the embedded
chip on the PVC, not the barcode, and
it shares a secret code with the PVC;
thus it is impossible to falsify the
cards.
3. The Card Reader authenticates the
identity of the voter by cross-matching
his/her fingerprints with that stored
on the embedded chip. No person can
vote using another person’s PVC.
4. The Card reader keeps a tally of all
cards read, comprising the details of
all voters verified as well as those not
verified, and transmits the collected
information to a central INEC server
via GSM data service.
5. Information transmitted to the server
will enable INEC to audit results from
polling units, as well as do a range of
statistical analysis of the
demographics of voting.
6. Collation officers will also be able to
use information transmitted by the
Card Reader to audit polling unit result
sheets and determine whether
accreditation figures have been
altered.
Question 2: Is the usage of Card Readers for
2015 elections legal?
Answer: The use of the Card Reader for the
purpose of accreditation of voters is one of
the innovations introduced by the
Commission to improve the integrity of the
electoral process. It does not violate the
Electoral Act 2010, as Amended, or the 1999
Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, as Amended. It adds value to the
process in line with the yearnings of
Nigerians for credible elections, and accords
with international best practices. Whereas
the Electoral Act prohibits the use of
electronic voting, the Card Reader is not a
voting machine and is not used for voting.
The Card Reader is used only for
accreditation of voters, and only
accreditation (and not voting) data is
transmitted by it.
Question 3: How does the Card Reader
work?
Answer: The Card Reader uses a highly
secure cryptographic technology that is used
commonly in devices that need to perform
secure transactions, such as paying
terminals. It has ultra-low power
consumption, with a single core frequency
of 1.2GHz and an Android 4.2.2. Operating
System. The INEC staff operating the Card
Reader will scan the PVC of each voter to
verify its genuiness before allowing the voter
to get accredited. It takes an average of 10
to 20 seconds to authenticate a voter.
Question 4: How long is the battery life of
the Card Reader?
Answer: The Card reader has a 3200mAh
battery, which can lasts for about 12 hours
in continual usage when fully charged. The
device hibernates when not in use to save
and lengthen the battery life.
Question 5: Who operates the Card Reader
at the Polling Unit?
Answer: An Assistant Presiding Officer
(APO) at the polling unit has the
responsibility to operate the Card Reader.
Poll officials that will operate the Card
Readers have received extensive hands-on
training and are well equipped to handle the
task. The Commission has also
painstakingly outlined the operational
procedures in its ‘Approved Guidelines and
Regulations for the Conduct of 2015 General
Elections ’.
Question 6: Have the Card Readers been
tested ahead of the 2015 general elections?
Answer: The Card Reader units have been
broadly subjected to simulation Quality
Assurance, Integrity and Functionality tests
and INEC has full confidence in their
performance for election purposes. The
device has also been subjected to
Performance and Conformance Test, both
locally and in Texas, United States,
laboratories by the Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) Research Centre and
found to be of the highest quality grade.
Besides all these, and with additional time
resulting from the rescheduling of the 2015
general elections, the Commission has
directed that Stress Test be conducted on
the Card Reader device in mock election
scenarios – two states in each of the six
geo-political zones – ahead of the new
election dates. (Details of this exercise will
be unveiled by the Commission next week.)
Question 7: Can the Card Reader fail to
function?
Answer: Going by the results of tests already
conducted, it is highly unlikely that the Card
Reader will fail on Election Day. Still, INEC
has drawn up serial intervention plans in the
unlikely event of the Card Readers failing.
(i) Should there be a challenge with battery
power for the device, the Commission has
procured more than 35,000 back-up batteries
that can be rapidly deployed.
(ii) If the device itself fails in the course of
accreditation, the Commission has procured
more than 26,000 spares that can be rapidly
deployed in replacement within the
scheduled accreditation hours of 8a.m. –
1p.m. Whatever time is lost on these
scheduled hours in the course of
replacement will be added and accreditation
extended beyond 1p.m. to compensate for
the lost time.
(iii) In the extremely unlikely and isolated
event that a faulty Card Reader can’t be
replaced within the scheduled accreditation
hours, INEC has come to a firm agreement
with political parties that the exercise be
repeated the following day rather than revert
to manual accreditation.
These procedures, which registered political
parties have agreed to, have been written
into the ‘Approved Guidelines and Regulations
for the Conduct of 2015 General Elections ’.
Question 8: What if the Card Reader verifies
a voter’s PVC but his/her fingerprints
cannot be authenticated?
Answer: The Commission has come to an
agreement with registered political parties
on what to do: namely that if a voter’s PVC
has been read and it is evident that he/she
is the legitimate holder of the card, but the
fingerprints cannot be authenticated (or he/
she doesn’t have fingers), the Presiding
Officer of the voting point will complete an
incident form and the voter will be
accredited to vote. Party Agents and
Observers would be there to witness to this.
Question 9: Is it possible to accredit all
voters who turn out within the stipulated
hours for accreditation using the Card
Reader?
Answer: The accreditation of a voter, using
the Card Reader, is estimated to last an
average of 10 to 20 seconds per voter. Even
if we double this time to 20 to 45 seconds
for planning purposes, and working on the
basis of a maximum of 750 voters per
voting point, and using a generous
projection of 70% voter turnout (the average
being 54% from past elections), which
equates to 525 voters, the card reader will
need 6.5hours to process all the voters. This
is well within the operating time for the
elections as well as the battery life of the
Card reader.
Question 10: How is the Card Reader
programmed?
Answer: To prevent fraudulent use, the Card
Rader is configured to work only on Election
Days. In addition, the device is configured to
specific polling units and cannot be used
elsewhere without requiring reconfiguration
by authorised INEC personnel.
Question 11: How has the INEC’s Card
Reader addressed the problems experienced
in other countries in the sub-region?
Answer: The challenge with a few of the
Card Reader devices in Ghana, for instance,
during the country’s 2012 general elections
was the battery power, apparently because
the affected devices were not fully charged.
It was in learning from this experience that
INEC designed the Card Readers to be used
in the 2015 elections with 12-hour battery
life in active usage, and also procured more
than 35,000 units of back-up batteries. The
imperative of adequate charging of the Card
Readers is underscored during the trainings
of election personnel.
The supposed technology failures during
Kenya’s general elections in 2013 had
nothing to do with card readers, as the
country used computer poll books for
accreditation. The challenge was rather with
the electronic system used in transmitting
results, and not card readers.

GEJ till 2019!!!

Thank You, but let's join hands & make Pa Buhari's not to part no more with his cattles..

Very informative. Thanks.

GEJ to Otueke, imminent.

Anyone who oppose the use of card reader is our collective enemy who plans to rig the election tru d use of stolen PVC or multiple voting . They will fail in Jesus name.