LESSONS ON THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ELECTIONS judges and collaboration with EMBs, not all jurisdictions have specialized courts or tribunals for elections, so training may be required on a large scale throughout different levels of the judiciary prior to the election. Thus, judiciaries could design a curriculum on election technology and a cascade training program prior to elections to reach a large audience of judges and judicial officers, as was done in Ethiopia and Kenya prior to elections in 2021 and 2022. Education and training are also important for parties or candidates who may wish to collect and present evidence in election petitions, and for election observers to enable them to make sound recommendations. 3. Judicial procedures need to be adapted to account for digital evidence relating to the use of election technology and to plan for additional resources to order effective investigation measures and remedies if necessary, such as an expert audit process. Courts should consider adopting rules of procedure that account for the admissibility of digital evidence, verifiability of digital evidence, effective chain of evidence, rules and forms relating to the conduct scrutiny of technology, and engagement of ICT experts in proceedings or admission of ICT experts as amicus curiae. The rules need to be sufficiently flexible to adapt to new digital tools and should be based on a sound understanding of the electoral process and election technology. Potential complainants also need to be informed about these rules to enhance the quality of their evidence collection. 4. The courts need to guarantee data integrity by protecting privacy rights of citizens and establishing adequate cybersecurity protections. Upon receipt of data during election proceedings, courts should guarantee that relevant data protection protocols are observed to avoid manipulation, theft, or tampering of data. While most election data is in the public domain, there are some notable exceptions (for example, related to biometric information) that can be crucial to protect rights of citizens. The growing body of laws and rules on protection of data should be incorporated to the practice of the court and EMBs should clearly convey these rules in their response or defense before the court. 5. The EMB needs to ensure there is a physical vote record to enable auditability of election technology used in the voting process and also needs to retain control of election technology used. Increasingly, EMBs must ensure that their electoral technologies are “scrutiny-ready” or “digital forensics-ready.” EMBs should also retain control over the technology and information systems during the design and implementation phase to ensure they can quickly provide access to evidence or make changes as required by the court. As stressed by IFES Principal Advisor Peter Erben at the international conference of the Association of World Election Bodies (AWEB) in 2017, EMBs should ensure more open, careful deliberation of technology choices, for example, by insisting that such an important decision be subject to a comprehensive well-resourced feasibility study: “The misperception and suspicion surrounding election technology have at times proven as damaging as actual weaknesses of technology.” 85 Peter Erben, IFES Senior Global Electoral Advisor “Raising Trust in Electoral Technology; Innovation Aided by Traditional Approaches.” Presentation delivered during the Association of World Election Bodies International Conference: “Counting the Ballots and Accounting for the Votes: The Use of Technology for Enhancing the Transparency of the Electoral Processes” (September 2, 2017). 85 29