Elections and Tech
Tech impacts every election.
Whether it's ballot scanners, biometrics, or social media, every election runs on and is shaped by technology. At IFES we are helping build resilient democracies that deliver for all. And that means the tech stack too, from undersea cables to avatars.
This site is a resource for anyone interested in democracy, technology, and all the strange ways they come together.
Launch of IFES' AI AGE: The Artificial Intelligence Advisory Group on Elections - June 12, 2025, 10:00am EDT
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming more powerful and influential, while, at the same time, democracy is under attack globally. Electoral authorities and AI experts – two groups crucial to restoring democracy worldwide - are largely working in siloes. Join the Carnegie Endowment’s Technology and International Affairs Program and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems for the launch of the AI AGE initiative and a discussion of critical issues at the intersection of AI and elections, including biometric identification, data governance, content provenance, and information integrity.
Updates across our initiatives
IFES Participates in AI Impact Summit in New Delhi
February 23, 2026
IFES was busy at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, the first such summit held in the global South. We solicited feedback on our forthcoming AI AGE Strategic Playbook on AI and elections, and participated in the first stakeholder consultation with the UN AI Global Dialogue Co-Chairs, arguing that elections highlight both the best and worst aspects of AI, and should therefore be elevated as a workstream under the upcoming AI Global Dialogue in Geneva.
IFES Hosts Two Day AI AGE Workshop in Partnership with TCC and GeorgiaTech
January 06, 2026
In December 2025, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems' (IFES) AI Advisory Group on Elections was graciously hosted by The Carter Center in Atlanta for a workshop on AI in election administration.
The convening brought together election commissions, technologists, civil society leaders, policymakers, private sector representatives, and academics from four continents—a rare and necessary cross-section of actors shaping how AI intersects with democratic processes worldwide.
A central outcome of this multistakeholder effort is the development of a Strategic Playbook for electoral officials: practical, actionable guidance to help Election Management Bodies make informed and responsible decisions about AI. The Playbook - scheduled for publication in early 2026 - will focus on ensuring that AI adoption strengthens electoral integrity and its core pillars—trust, accuracy, transparency, accountability, and respect for human rights.
As AI AGE member Katie Shay Perault aptly notes: “The challenge is not whether AI will be used in elections, but for what purposes, under what safeguards, and with what accountability.”
IFES thanks The Carter Center and Georgia Institute of Technology for their tremendous partnership, and to all participants who contributed their time, insight, and commitment
IFES's Lisa Poggiali Reviews Controversial New AI Book
January 06, 2026
IFES's Dr. Lisa Poggiali reviews If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All, by Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares, in the September 18 issue of Science, the leading multidisciplinary, international journal of peer-reviewed research. Poggiali questions Yudkowsky's and Soare's alarmist predictions about the inevitability of human extinction at the hands of rogue AI, and suggests that global policymakers should instead prioritize creating guardrails to address the multitude of empirically verified AI-generated harms and risks we are facing right now.
Locally Developed AI: Building the Future of Democratic Electoral Innovation
October 10, 2025
AI AGE Op-ed: Solidarity, Not Speed, for AI Governance
June 18, 2025
Dr. Lisa Poggiali, IFES’ Global Digital Democracy Advisor, penned an op-ed for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on the power of cross-regional and cross-sectoral solidarity for driving a democratic global AI ecosystem.
AI AGE in the News
June 17, 2025As AI AGE officially kicks off, the group is receiving media attention from around the world. See below for key media mentions to date:
- “Taiwan named founding member of global AI election advisory group”, Focus Taiwan (Taiwan)
- “Yiaga Director, Itodo, 15 others join Global AI Advisory Group on Elections”, Premium Times (Nigeria)
- “Samson Itodo appointed into AI advisory group on elections”, The Cable (Nigeria)
- “CEC joins global AI election advisory group pioneers”, Taipei Times (Taiwan)
- “Samson Itodo Appointed to Global AI Advisory Group on Elections”, Gatekeepers News (Nigeria)
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