Democracies globally are increasingly reliant on technology to deliver free and fair elections, including online voting, voter registration software, biometric voter registration, and electronic voting machines. The design and implementation of election technology, in turn, directly impacts the inclusivity of elections. Voters with disabilities face longstanding and emerging barriers to voting, and technology can help or hinder. To help election practitioners, disability rights advocates, and technology providers increase election accessibility for all voters globally, IFES created the “Election Platform for Accessibility through Human Rights and Security” Database, or ElectionPATHS, providing transparent data about the accessibility features of election technology on the marketplace today.

Explore the database through the dashboard below and scroll for more information about its development and use!

Vendors: have a product to add? Submit information or an update about a product at any time here.

Who is ElectionPATHS for?

The information in this database is potentially useful for many audiences:

• Technology providers can clearly communicate the base and optional features of their products;
• Election officials and other officials can use this data to make informed choices in procurement;
• Organizations of persons with disabilities can better advocate for new technologies with stakeholders; and
• Election observers and media can evaluate technologies used in elections.

What is in the database?

The dataset captures up to 55 datapoints for each product, drawing from international standards on accessibility and inputs from the global disability and elections technology communities. These include information across six categories:

• Product details, including links to supporting documentation and information on whether it has yet been used in elections;
• Provider information, including website and headquarters location;
• Technical capabilities that may come standard or optional, including connectivity to the internet or capturing of biometric data;
• Electoral uses, meaning all the ways the device can be used in the election process from candidate registration through ballot verification;
• Accessibility features, including alternative text and audio options, and whether they come standard or are optional, possibly at an additional cost;
• Accessibility review, meaning whether the product has been piloted by members of the disability community has been or tested in alignment with WCAG 2.0 standards, where applicable.

Technical documentation

To learn more about what is included in the database, review the codebook.

How is the data updated and verified?

ElectionPATHS is built in partnership with technology vendors and disability rights activists. Our approach to data collection is decentralized, allowing providers and other stakeholders to attest to the capabilities of a product, and providing attribution for the sources of submitted data. Election technology and assistive technology are constantly changing, so database records are also treated as living records that can be updated by the original submitter or another stakeholder over time as things change. Every entry has indicators for the submitter type and a date of submission.

Each product is given a unique alphanumeric Product ID that captures two pieces of information: the submitter type and the product number in the database. If the same product is reviewed by two submitter types, for instance by a provider and by IFES, a user can discern between them by looking at the three letters at the start of the unique ID. Users can confirm whether the same product has been reviewed by multiple contributors by cross verifying the numeric portion of the Product ID.

Using the data

The database is available to the public for use and, as such, the data may be used freely for personal and non-commercial purposes, such as research and teaching, provided appropriate attribution is made to IFES ElectionPATHS. Some included information may be public domain or may require special consideration; we will share these considerations alongside the database as it continues to grow.

Why did IFES create ElectionPATHS?

ElectionPATHS is an effort to catalog a broad range of election technology and assistive technology that can be applied in elections. The goal is to increase transparency around the current election technology accessibility landscape as well as to identify gaps and areas where new advancements in technology can better serve the public. More inclusive elections, supported by technology, can enhance both perceived and real electoral integrity globally.

With questions or concerns about ElectionPATHS, please contact IFES’s Data Analytics and Visualization team at [email protected].

ElectionPATHS was made possible with the support and partnership of Microsoft.