By Dr. Masimba Mavaza|The advantages of biometrics voting are that the person is the key so you need never remember your card or key again. Each body part is unique and Biometrics uses your unique identity enable  to activate something or unlock something. Biometrics encompasses Voice, Vein, Eye, Fingerprint, Facial recognition and more. All information is held in a database and then can be retrieved to properly identify individuals.
The disadvantages are numerous.
What would the nation do if the voting system were hacked? Someone could erase the data so no one could vote because there is nothing to match with because the file is not there. One could also switch data around so that while it remains there it will not match.
Criminals have been known to remove fingers to open biometric locks, this could be unlikely in voting. Biometric requires a lot of data to be kept on a person, these systems are not always reliable as human beings change over time if you are ill; eyes puffy, voice hoarse or your fingers are rough from laboring for example it maybe more difficult for the machinery to identify you accurately. Every time you use Biometrics you are being tracked by a database bringing up a range of privacy issues. The final disadvantage is the expense and technical complexity of such systems. Disadvantages of a biometric voting system.
The finger print of those people working in Chemical industries are often affected. Therefore these companies should not use the finger print mode of authentication.
It is found that with age, the voice of a person differs. Also when the person has flu or throat infection the voice changes or if there there is too much noise in the environment this method may not authenticate correctly. Therefore this method of verification is not workable all the time.
For people affected with diabetes, the eyes get affected resulting in differences.
Biometrics is an expensive security solution.
Advantages of Biometrics :
* Increase security – Provide a convenient and low-cost additional tier of security.
* Reduce vote fraud by employing hard-to-forge technologies and materials, such as minimise the opportunity for identification fraud and buddy punching.
* Eliminate problems caused by lost IDs or forgotten passwords by using physiological attributes. For example, prevent unauthorised use of lost, stolen or “borrowed” ID cards.
* Integrate a wide range of biometric solutions and technologies, customer applications and databases into a robust and scalable control solution for facility and network access
* Make it possible, automatically, to know who did what, where and when.
But the technicality can make it difficult for the voter in Mudzi or Tsholotsho to realise that he/ she might not have voted. So celebrating biometric voting is still premature.
If we have failed to pay our civil servants will we be able to pay for the biometric voting?
– Dr Masimba Mavaza