Czech system of election results processing is unique

12 January 2023

Processing of election results in Czechia combines the best from traditional “manual” methods of processing with using modern technologies. Thereby transparency and both the ongoing and retrospective checking of the whole process are ensured. Moreover, the system is independent of to what extent the web interface is currently functioning.   

Manual counting of votes by ward election committees is essential; by that, a potential threat of influencing results during computer processing is eliminated. Moreover, committees are absolutely independent of the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) as for the staff; entities standing for the election may nominate members of the committees and thus also citizen control of elections is ensured. The CZSO does not have access to ballot papers themselves, either. After the elections, they remain sealed and archived for prospective review and check by the court.  

It is a responsibility of committees to count and write down (record) in a correct way the data they found. They enter results of voting in a form or input them into an auxiliary routine (programme) of the CZSO and print out a record. The auxiliary routine (programme) does not count votes, it does not count election results, either; it makes it easier for a committee to make a record, because it contains control links and thus it reduces the risk of making errors. Afterwards, members of an election committee confirm by their signatures that the data in a record are correct. 

Signed records are handed over by committees on a determined point of handover to the Czech Statistical Office. The CZSO only checks formal requisites of those documents, saves the data in a processing system, which is completely separated from the public internet network, and issues a copy (of the results it has obtained) to the committees. Based on the copy, committee members can verify that the results of voting were captured for statistical databases in the form in which they had been taken over. Therefore, it is another important element of control of transparency of the election process.

Total election results are processed by a central workplace of the CZSO. “Data taken over from our points of handover we also almost immediately publish on our volby.cz presentation website, which is, however, entirely separated from the processing itself and fulfils a role of an imaginary online notice board,” Eva Krumpová, First Vice President of the Czech Statistical Office, says. There, results of voting are accessible from the lowest level of wards up to the data for the whole Czech Republic, even in the open data format. Also thanks to them, committees can verify that the results were published in accordance with their record.

“The Czech Statistical Office also transmits results of elections via a special dedicated line to the media, which had registered for that service in advance. In case that there is an outage of the volby.cz presentation web, either due to a technical failure or a bad intention, users can obtain ongoing information through television, radio, and news websites,” Eva Krumpová reminds.   

The Czech Statistical Office is also prepared, for the case of really extreme incidents like a blackout (total power outage), for the possibility to completely process election results without using computer technology or only with a minimum of it.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

How long does it take to prepare elections and how many people are engaged for the CZSO in it? 

It takes many months to prepare for elections and almost the whole Czech Statistical Office is involved in it starting from people directly engaged in election teams who prepare the methodology, computer technology, software, training of staff, who take care of organising and staffing policy, up to those who take care of material provision and logistics. Directly on the polling days, about two and a half thousand people are devoted to the processing of voting results (including external staff) and almost one and a half thousand computers are used.

Are there some tests prior to the election of the President of the Czech Republic?

Prior to the election of the President, there were complete tests of processing at all workplaces determined for data handover by ward election committees and, of course, in the headquarters of the CZSO, too. The last one of those tests took place on 10 January (Tuesday). Concurrently, programmes and databases are repeatedly tested and functionality of all ICT equipment is checked. Our systems undergo both thorough functional and load tests. It is a standard procedure that we make before any elections.

The election website, which presents ongoing and afterwards also final election results is already taken for granted by the public. Is it really so?

No law determines or orders the CZSO to immediately publish the results down to the level of individual wards in the way users are used to now. Nevertheless, the CZSO provides this service to the public because it is one of the possibilities of immediate public control. Results are thus accessible very fast and they are transparent and verifiable at the same time.

When the election website is potentially inaccessible, does it mean that processing of election results is endangered?

Presentation of election results and processing of results of elections are two absolutely separated processes and potential inaccessibility of the web presentation does not influence the election process, i.e. it does not influence processing of voting results either. It can be compared to an outage of a live TV transmission of a sports match. TV viewers cannot see anything at a given moment, however, players continue to play on the stadium and the match is not impacted at all. We have prepared alternative solutions for potential inaccessibility. The CZSO offers online specialised election data accesses to the media, which are thus one of the main channels informing the public about ongoing results of elections.  

Contact:
Jan Cieslar
Spokesman of the CZSO
T (+420) 274 052 017 | M (+420) 604 149 190
E jan.cieslar@csu.gov.cz   | Twitter @statistickyurad