How can we use automation to improve electoral oversight and transparency?

Democratic elections should both be free and fair, and also be seen to be free and fair to engender public trust. One of the primary ways in which these qualities are ensured is through transparency mechanisms. And yet, these transparency mechanisms are neither a panacea, nor implemented in the same way across the world. However, advances in technology pose an opportunity. In particular automation provides an invaluable new weapon in the fight to uphold the integrity of the electoral process. Currently, regulators struggle to keep up with technological developments that evolve faster than national (or supra-national) legislation can keep pace with. In this context, transparency is all the more important, as is the ability to analyse donation and spending returns in near-real time. In this paper we utilise elite interviews with EMBs across the world that are experimenting with automation to address three questions: Where is the potential to use automation? What capacity is needed to realize these goals? What are examples of how automation is utilized? In doing so we explore a fascinating new frontier of upholding electoral integrity of interest to academics, activists and practitioners alike.