Election authorities from Spain successfully tested a new system to improve election administration during the recent municipal Spanish elections held on May 24.
In 22 municipalities (900 polling tables) authorities deployed the MAE project. MAE, which stands for Electronically Managed Polling places (Mesas Administradas Electrónicamente, in Spanish), comprises the use of laptop computers, paired with electronic ID card readers, SD cards with the census data and laser printers, in order to streamline voter authentication and vote counting in polling stations.
MAE could be considered a good first step towards electronic voting even though it only works on a limited set of tasks.
The cost of this system is estimated at 620 euros for each Electronically Managed Polling station, and it is expected to be generally used for the regional, insular and municipal elections by 2019.
The 21 municipalities using MAE were: Sevilla and Jaén (Andalucía), A Coruña (Galicia), Badaloz and Tarragona (Catalonia), Ceuta, Melilla, Avilés (Asturias), Santander (Cantabria), Vitoria (Basque country), Pamplona (Navarra), Huesca (Aragon), Torrent (Community of Valencia), Molina del Segura (Murcia), Marratxí (Balearic islands) Ingenio y Candelaria (Canary islands), Mérida (Extremadura), Burgos (Castille and León ), Talavera de la Reina (Castile – La Mancha), Alcobendas (Madrid). In Vitoria and Pamplona not all polling stations had MAE.
These elections were not the first time the system was tested in Spain, as they were already used in similar elections in 2008 and 2011.
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