Nerom

In Nigeria, every vote is counted by hand. At each of the 176,846 polling units, an officer records the results on a sheet called Form EC8A. Since 2020, photos of these sheets have also been uploaded to INEC's public results portal, IReV. So technically, the results are public. Anyone can access them. But nobody is realistically going through 176,000 handwritten sheets one by one. We saw the consequences in 2023. Some result sheets were still being uploaded 87 days after the presidential election. Figures changed between polling units and collation centres, while edited result sheets circulated on WhatsApp faster than anyone could verify them. Many of these disputes eventually ended up in election tribunals, where individual sheets had to be examined months later. I kept thinking there had to be a better way. That's why I built Recount. Recount reads every result sheet. It fetches the original IReV image and uses Muse Spark 1.3 to extract the information into structured data. It captures polling unit codes, registered and accredited voters, ballot accounting, every party's score in figures and words, stamps, signatures and overwritten entries. SAM 3.1 helps identify official stamps and correction fluid. Then regular code handles the actual checks. It verifies whether votes add up, whether votes exceed accredited voters, whether figures match the words, whether the sheet is stamped and signed, and whether it belongs to the polling unit it was uploaded under. When something doesn't add up, Muse Spark takes another look at the original image. It checks the entries responsible for the flag and determines whether the issue is actually on the paper or came from a reading mistake. So far, Recount has processed 11,776 sheets: ➠ Osun 2026: 3,752 sheets ➠ Ekiti 2026: 2,390 sheets ➠ Anambra 2025: 5,634 sheets For Osun, Recount's total was within 0.11% of INEC's declared figures for both leading parties. It also reviewed 1,410 flags through its second check. 86% were confirmed on the actual sheets, while 12% came from mistakes in the initial reading. That second check matters. A smudged 7 shouldn't become a scandal because an AI misread it. Recount also allows citizens to: ➠ Verify forwarded result sheets by comparing them with INEC's original and highlighting what changed. ➠ Check ward collation sheets (EC8B) against the polling unit results beneath them. ➠ Report incidents at polling units, from late officials to vote buying. ➠ Access SHA-256 evidence packs for every sheet, helping preserve what was originally published for future verification and tribunal proceedings. ➠ Use Recount on the web or through WhatsApp, with open data and an API. Recount is independent and non-partisan. It doesn't declare winners. Only INEC does. Making election results public is only half the work. Nigerians should also be able to verify what was recorded at their polling units. Live: https://recount.nerom.site