"But they have overlooked a few things in Afghanistan:" An Analysis of the Integration of Biometric Voter Verification in the 2019 Afghan Presidential Elections

Afghanistan deployed biometric voter verification (BVV) machines nationally for the first time in the critical 2019 presidential election. Through the leading authors' unique backgrounds and involvement in this election, which facilitated interviews with 18 Afghan nationals and international participants who had an active role in this Afghan election, we explore the gap between the expected outcomes of the electoral system, centered around BVVs, and the reality on election day and beyond. We find that BVVs supported and violated the electoral goals of voter enfranchisement, fraud prevention, enabling public trust, and created threats for voters, staff, and officials. We identify technical, usability, and bureaucratic underlying causes for these mismatches and discuss several vital factors that are part of an election.