Vote Monitor app, available for all 3 rounds of elections

Code for Romania announces that the Vote Monitor app, previously accessible only to accredited observers, will now be available for all three rounds of elections and the election campaign, allowing any citizen to report potential irregularities in real-time.

Citizens in Romania and abroad can report, either anonymously or with identification, issues such as hate speech promoted by parties or candidates, acts of violence during the campaign or on election day, attempts to bribe voters, election advertising violations, campaign finance irregularities, or any other issues that could jeopardize the integrity of the elections.

More information about citizen involvement in election oversight can be found on the website www.atentlavot.ro, developed in partnership with the Electoral Observer.

Reports submitted through the app will be reviewed by a team of journalists from G4media and may be included in election observation reports published by relevant NGOs. Some of these reports may also be investigated and published.

Submitting a report through Vote Monitor does not constitute an official complaint to the institutions responsible for organizing elections. However, the app provides all necessary information for citizens to notify the appropriate authorities.

Vote Monitor (available on iOS & Android), created by Code for Romania in 2016, is Romania’s first election monitoring app and one of the few of its kind worldwide. The app has streamlined an otherwise cumbersome, paper-based reporting system.

In Romania, the app is used by independent observers accredited by civic organizations working in the fields of democracy and human rights, including members of the Fair Vote Coalition: Expert Forum (EFOR), CIVICA, Rădăuțiul Civic, Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), Civic Resource Center, and the Electoral Observer.

Vote Monitor has been used to oversee 19 separate election processes across six countries, including Romania, Georgia, Moldova, and Poland. Through this app, independent observers have reported over 110,000 issues and submitted more than 650,000 messages.