how to use biometric voter registration system

Kenya Votes August 8th 2017 (IEBC - VOTING PROCEDURE)

Biometric Voter Registration System (BVRS) is a highly advanced biometric information system that allows to enroll and identify millions of voters quickly and unmistakably. Using biometric identifiers, the possibility of election fraud is minimized, at the same time considerably accelerating the voter identification process.

Biometric identification is where a voter offers a fingerprint (for example) and the device will look up all the biometric data it contains to see if there is a match . The question being asked is 'Who is this person". Biometric verification, on the other hand, asks the question "Is this person who they say they are?" - so, for example, the voter's ID number is entered, then a fingerprint, and the system matches the offered fingerprint against just one, a 1:1 match.

BVRS is designed to fit the needs of any company or government in need of a robust and secure voter identification system.

Biometric Voter Registration System - Key features include:

A full range of biometric parameters to identify the voters by fingerprints, iris, voice etc.
Highly customizable software modules for both input and output settings
Comprehensive data logs and reports for thorough voter activity monitoring
Wide range of supported hardware (fingerprint scanners, IRIS/Face cameras etc.)
Highest level security settings for data protection

What are the common problems encountered when applying BVR systems?

In terms of common problems, It is clear that hardware can be adversely affected by the environment (e.g. heat, humidity and rain). It can also be difficult to obtain fingerprints from some people. On the technical side, there is a danger of software bugs, a lack of Internet bandwidth in rural areas and poor Automatic Fingerprint Information System (AFIS) performance during de-duplication of the entire print database. Additional technological challenges present themselves if same day fingerprint verification is required and verifying mismatches of biometric data can be problematic in general. Interoperability of the entire system must also be taken into consideration, especially if hardware components come from different manufacturers.

Other factors to take into consideration are socio-cultural, e.g. touching and photography people and infrastructure (such as a sufficient power supply).