Electoral Management Body – Election Observer Dialogue on Open Election Data

As the challenges to safeguarding and advancing electoral integrity evolve, strengthening communities of best practice and deepening strategic engagement between election observation communities and electoral management bodies (EMBs) is all the more important. Meanwhile, many EMBs are increasingly making election data more “open” and publicly available, and international and citizen election observers have become more vocal in promoting open election data. These opportunities could be enhanced significantly through more focused dialogue at global and regional levels among EMBs and observers. In addition, election observers need not only to have the capacity to analyze data provided by their own ob- servers, but also need to incorporate the analysis of official election data into their overall findings.

• Foster cooperation and consensus among electoral management bodies and election observers on ways to further enhance electoral transparency and promote open election data.
• Enhance the capacity of citizen election observers to effectively use official election data in their observation efforts.

To address these objectives, CEPPS/NDI:

• Co-organized two Global Electoral Integrity Dialogues between EMBs and election observers (Indonesia 2016 and Georgia 2017) focused on jointly addressing electoral integrity and open data challenges;
• Facilitated follow-up actions to promote open election data among global and regional observer networks, including the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM) and the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL); and
• Equipped citizen election observers with capacities and tools to access and use election data to promote electoral accountability and integrity. This included conducting an Open Election Data Academy for leading data-oriented citizen observers, publishing online training modules for analyzing election data, and developing and piloting tools to help election observers rapidly digitize election data.