The Electoral Machine: How Elections Are Won Before Voting Starts: Full Edition

How Elections Are Won Before Voting Starts

On February 25, 2023, Chidinma — a microbiology graduate on NYSC — sat as Presiding Officer at Polling Unit 047, Ogui Nike Layout, Enugu. Her BVAS device worked. The fingerprints were captured. The senatorial results uploaded to IReV at 10:43 p.m., GPS-tagged and permanent. The presidential result sheet sat on the table and never uploaded. The Electoral Machine is a forensic inspection of how Nigerian elections are won before voting starts: how the technology worked and the human system around it didn't, how courtroom elections overturn polling unit results, and what it would actually take to make the pipe deliver what it promises.