Ensuring Legitimate Election Results

A Guide to Verifying SIV Votes

As a voter, being able to verify the legitimacy of our cities' or country's election results is crucial to prevent corruption, loss of public trust, and civil unrest.

Throughout history, contested elections have led to violence and system breakdowns. This is not unique to any one country or political group, as evidenced by the examples in Kenya in 2007, where over 1,300 people were killed and over 500,000 displaced, Iran in 2009, Ivory Coast in 2010, and Bolivia in 2019.

Similarly, in the United States, we have seen the impact of contested elections on both sides of the political spectrum. The 2000 Presidential election between George Bush and Al Gore saw violence due to disputed results. In 2020, the election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump also led to heightened tensions and civil unrest, culminating in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Voting is supposed to be one of the most meaningful collective actions we can take. We get to decide how our world is governed and who gets to represent us. However, for some, it has become a time of fear. For others, it is a time of dread, as they are reminded that the world they live in is led by people who may have attained their position of power through corrupt means.

This pain that people experience around tense elections is not helped when it's difficult to confirm the legitimacy of the election results.

We need to have the ability to personally verify the accuracy of election results to protect our fundamental right to make our voices count. That's why Secure Internet Voting (SIV) was created as an independently verifiable digital election system.

This guide will explain how each voter can verify the legitimacy of Secure Internet Voting (SIV) elections and ensure that their own vote was accurately recorded and counted in the final election tally.