IEEQ expands use of artificial intelligence for 2027 electoral process, Digi Mart USA News (Querétaro, Mexico): The Electoral Institute of the State of Querétaro (IEEQ) plans to increase its use of artificial intelligence (AI) across its processes ahead of the 2027 election, and to use it again in the Preliminary Electoral Results Program (PREP), according to council president Grisel Muñiz Rodríguez.
Muñiz Rodríguez said the scope of AI use in the election is currently under review and analysis. Any implementation must be notified to the National Electoral Institute (INE) for authorization.
In the 2023-2024 electoral process, Querétaro was a pioneer in using the tool to read voting records in a pilot test. The tool captured data in seconds, compared with an average of one and a half minutes per record for a person.
However, the work was not replaced by human labor, in order to guarantee the certainty of the election results.
The institute will now evaluate whether to expand the scope and percentage of AI use. Muñiz Rodríguez also said the tool could be applied to administrative work, mainly in electoral offices, to optimize processing times.
Electoral offices verify, certify electoral acts or facts, and gather evidence for future proceedings, including situations that could affect the organization of the process, electoral fairness, or violations of electoral law. Muñiz Rodríguez said AI would not replace human judgment but would reduce the time needed for certification work.
María Eugenia Cervantes, head of the Executive Directorate of Legal Affairs, explained that staff currently must travel to different municipalities to inspect walls, billboards and public events and write descriptions, a desk-based task that can take days. She said these timelines could be accelerated.
