The Superior Electoral Justice Court (TSJE) has defended the security of the electronic voting system in the face of criticism ahead of the internal party elections scheduled for June 7. The director of Information and Communication Technologies of the body, Fausto von Streber, explained that each electronic ballot contains an RFID chip that functions as a data storage device and only allows one valid vote when interacting with the corresponding polling station machine.
Von Streber stated that, before releasing the vote, the system verifies the authenticity of the chip to prevent irregularities or manipulation attempts. He added that the information stored on the chip is encrypted and that the encryption keys vary according to elements of the process, such as the machine used and the credentials enabled for voting.
The official recalled that similar technology was previously applied in Argentina, where criticism arose due to the possibility of remote reading of the data contained in the chips. Because of this history, Paraguay required the incorporation of additional security and encryption mechanisms to prevent external access to the information, according to Von Streber.