Ipsidy is a business that provides biometric identification, identity management and electronic transaction processing services. The company has a HQ in New York, but also has subsidiaries in Columbia and South Africa.
That South African branch will support the implementation of new biometric authentication of voters in the upcoming 2018 election. To eliminate voter fraud, individuals will now be fingerprinted as they vote.
Australia’s own Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has had issues in the past with people going between different voting locations which then resulted in a small percentage of invalid votes. This is possible due to our manual election process of having your name struck off a list. When you vote, you’re simply asked to verbally confirm you haven’t voted anywhere else that day and clearly people lie.
With the introduction of biometrics, there’d be a digital verification that the voter hasn’t yet voted in the election and prevent duplicate voters. While not full electronic voting, this does solve a key issue with elections locally and internationally.
While some people may be concerned the Government would have a copy of their biometric data, that’s certainly a valid concern, but if you have a passport, they already have it. Right many Government services rely on a photo of you (driver’s licence) however a fingerprint is unique, which makes its a better method of authorisation.
Chief Technology Officer at Ipsidy, Thomas Szoke said,
“We are very pleased to have been selected by the ZEC to provide this critical solution, ahead of all competitors under the tender.
This award represents the continued recognition of the efficacy and value of Ipsidy’s identification platform, software, and services in the African election market.”
More information at iAfrickan, via TheNextWeb.
