Election Monitoring
The Play
Election Monitoring is about more than just observing—it's about empowering citizens to protect democracy and encourage participation. At its core, this play mobilizes a wide network of everyday people to monitor elections using specialized tools.
When citizens serve as the vigilant eyes on election procedures, they can help detect and deter fraud—exposing attempts at manipulation and abuse. But monitoring also does something just as important: it reassures voters. When people see that civil society is watching, they're more likely to believe their vote will count—and to show up.
Organizing such a network isn't just about ensuring accuracy. It's a powerful antidote to distrust and apathy, strengthening GOTV directly. When done well, election monitoring builds confidence, renews civic commitment, and turns skepticism into engagement.
In this way, a clear commitment to transparency doesn't just defend the vote—it drives it. Oversight becomes a catalyst for participation, trust, and action.
Why it works
- Restores trust in the election. Visible, citizen-led monitoring reassures voters that the process is being watched, making them more likely to believe their vote will count.
- Counters apathy with agency. Turning observers into active participants in democracy shifts people from passive skepticism to engaged civic action.
- Builds momentum and visibility. A monitoring campaign sends a clear message: people care, they're watching, and they're ready to act, energizing broader voter participation.
- Creates a backbone for resistance. Even after election day, monitoring efforts can serve as a rallying point to challenge fraud, escalate pressure, and defend democratic outcomes.
How it works
1. Announce and promote the election monitoring initiative
Launch a public campaign to announce your commitment to election monitoring, emphasizing that citizen involvement will safeguard electoral results. Create channels on social media, and organize press releases and community forums to reach a broad audience. Engage local leaders and public figures to endorse the campaign to build credibility.
2. Prepare a protocol for parallel vote counting (If Needed)
If there's a serious risk of fraud, be ready with a parallel vote-counting system. This doesn't need to be complex—just clear, fast, and easy for citizens to use. Rely on tools people already know, like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Google Forms, to collect and submit data. Avoid complicated apps or installations that might create barriers.
Test the system ahead of time to ensure it works in real-time alongside the official count. Design clear protocols for spotting and reporting irregularities immediately. Focusing on a representative sample of strategic polling stations will help flag suspicious trends early and credibly.
3. Recruit observers
Promote the sign-up form for election observers through all available channels. To strengthen and amplify recruitment efforts, foster partnerships with other stakeholders, including media outlets, political parties, and civil society organizations. Provide daily updates on recruitment progress to encourage broader participation. Use emotional messaging to build a sense of shared purpose and momentum, creating the feeling that everyone is needed and no one should be left out.
4. Training of observers
Provide comprehensive training sessions covering observation procedures, communication protocols, and documentation requirements. Consider developing an online training module, which can be especially effective for large-scale mobilization. Remember that you are working with everyday citizens from diverse backgrounds, so the mission assigned for Election Day must be simple, with straightforward procedures and tools that are super easy to follow and use.
5. Deployment, logistics, and support
Organize logistics for deploying observers to the polling stations, ensuring adequate coverage across key electoral districts. Provide them with the necessary resources, such as observation kits and identification badges. Additionally, transportation and supplies should be arranged to support their needs throughout election day. Establish clear communication channels and support the observers. During the day of the election, maintain contact with them throughout the electoral process and make their good work public.
6. Monitoring, reporting, and parallel vote counting
On Election Day, provide observers with standardized reporting forms to document any irregularities and submit them in real time to a central coordination team. Ensure that observers compile reports with accurate and timestamped observations, including photographic or video evidence if possible. During the recount, set the parallel vote tabulation protocol in motion to provide an independent assessment of election results to identify discrepancies or anomalies in the recount process.
7. Be ready for post-election manipulation
Even if election monitoring runs smoothly, authoritarian regimes may still attempt to manipulate the outcome during the final certification phase—often through politically controlled electoral commissions or courts. Anticipate this risk by developing a robust post-election contingency plan.
This strategy should include pre-drafted public statements, rapid-response media toolkits, coordinated messaging with trusted local and international voices, and pre-established relationships with global electoral watchdogs, academic institutions, and foreign diplomatic missions. These connections will lend credibility to your response and help draw attention when it matters most.
Your ability to defend the results—and democracy—will depend on the transparency, rigor, and preparedness of your monitoring effort. Be ready to present clear, verifiable evidence and escalate pressure if manipulation occurs. This phase is often neglected, but it's precisely here that many democratic struggles are won—or lost.
Tips
A. Community Building And Engagement
Organize outreach events, workshops, and public forums to empower the observers. Assign them specific roles and responsibilities based on their skills and preferences. Participants should be especially familiar with the procedures they must follow on election day to record incidents in formal legal documents and complaints.
Beyond the content, aim to make the training sessions and gatherings enjoyable and create opportunities for participants to interact and get to know each other before and after the sessions. People want to feel a sense of belonging, and cultivating it will help them not only be effective observers but also become messengers to raise awareness and encourage participation.
B. Leverage Existing Technology
Establish a centralized communication hub for observers to report incidents, seek guidance, and receive real-time updates. Make use of multiple channels to ensure accessibility. Develop a clear and simple protocol to streamline the reporting process and the parallel vote counting, allowing observers to easily record and submit information in real-time, including text descriptions, photos, and videos. There is no need to develop a technically complicated customized digital platform; observers should use applications they commonly use to make sure they feel secure in maintaining confidentiality. The key is not the data entry tool itself, but knowing how to manage and use the data effectively.
In high-risk contexts, plan for possible internet blackouts, electricity cuts, or mobile network disruptions. Equip observers with offline tools (e.g., printed checklists, USB drives, power banks) and establish backup communication plans, like SMS relays or analog hotlines, to ensure continuity even under pressure.
Who's done it well?
Venezuela: Comanditos
A Citizen-Led Battle for Electoral Integrity
The 2024 Venezuelan presidential elections took place amid promises of widespread repression and possible fraud. In response, the opposition organized a vast network of 60,000 citizens known as "comanditos" ('little commandos') to monitor polling stations and safeguard the integrity of the electoral process.
These groups were formed through local outreach, community meetings, and WhatsApp groups, relying on community engagement and digital communication. Small cells, of around ten members each, were established in neighborhoods all across the country, and each comandito received training on spotting irregularities, documenting incidents, and maintaining calm under pressure.
Organized in a decentralized structure, each comandito had its own coordinator who reported to a broader network, creating a resilient yet discreet system. Members were equipped with toolkits covering legal guidelines, checklists, and emergency contacts and were encouraged to remain safe and cautious, given the risks of government scrutiny.
On election day, the comanditos focused on ensuring that polling stations printed and delivered the legally required voting records. Once the records were secured, each comandito was tasked with photographing and sending them via WhatsApp to a central command of volunteers, who then uploaded them into an app for a parallel vote-counting system. This same system allowed for the detailed publication of results, enabling citizens to verify them on a publicly accessible website and, thus, widespread transparency.
Thanks to the efforts of the comanditos, the political opposition collected 25,000 records, representing 86% of the votes, and exposed significant discrepancies, exhibiting electoral fraud on a large scale.
"When we published those results online, it wasn't just a challenge to the government —it was a moment of truth for all of us. For the first time, we weren't just speaking about fraud, we were proving it, showing the world and Venezuelans the real numbers."
Belarus: Golos
Voice of Truth
In the 2020 Belarus presidential election, the lack of transparency fueled widespread distrust in the official voting process. In response, a group of IT engineers developed Golos ("Voice"). They used chatbots on Telegram and Viber to collect and verify vote data anonymously.
A civil society organization led a campaign to encourage citizens to photograph their ballots after voting (which was legal then) and send these images to the Golos chatbots. Using AI and volunteer efforts, the photos were authenticated by checking for the official signatures required by law on each ballot.
Approximately 550,000 voters—around 10% of the total turnout—submitted photos of their ballots. This data enabled Golos to conduct a parallel count, which starkly contrasted with the official results. While the government claimed that Lukashenko won with 80% of the vote, Golos' data proved that opposition candidate Tsikhanouskaya had actually received at least 56%, with Lukashenko's support really ranging only between 28% and 34%.
"Our top priority when building it was protecting voters' anonymity. In a country where speaking out could be dangerous, we had to ensure people felt safe. In using secure chatbots, we gave Belarusians a way to report their votes without fear. Anonymity was everything; it was the only way to ensure people could participate and make their voices heard."
Learn more
- AltaVista. 2024. "Parallel Vote Tabulation Initiative Venezuela."
- Brothers, Julia et al. 2023. "Process and Results Verification for Transparency."
- Golos. 2020. "Final Report on the 2020 Presidential Elections in Belarus."
- NDI. "Parallel Vote Tabulations."
- Levitsky, Steven et al. 2024. "Open Letter on Venezuela's Election."
- USAID. 2015. "Assessing and verifying election results."
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