Method
How the Monitor works
TogetherNigeria never invents a number. Every figure shown is either published by INEC or derived by arithmetic from a published Form EC8A, and every derived figure links back to the scan it came from.
01
Ingest published records
The Monitor polls the INEC IReV public API for election metadata, polling-unit coverage and every published Form EC8A image. Nothing is scraped from unofficial sources.
02
Read the sheet
Each scan is read for registered voters, accredited voters, party votes, rejected and total valid votes. Values that cannot be read confidently are queued rather than guessed.
03
Run the checks
Arithmetic (party votes vs valid votes, valid + rejected vs total), identity (unit code matches the sheet), duplication (same sheet published for two units) and legibility.
04
Track coverage
Uploaded versus expected polling units per ward, LGA and state, so missing results are visible instead of silently absent.
05
Preserve the trail
Publication time, source URL and any replacement of a previously published sheet are kept, so a result can always be opened against the record it came from.
06
Publish and export
Public summaries stay open. Teams work in an access-controlled workspace with scoped, timestamped evidence exports.
Flags we raise
- ArithmeticParty votes do not sum to the valid-vote figure on the sheet.
- Over-votingTotal votes cast exceed accredited voters for the unit.
- IdentityUnit code or name on the sheet differs from the published unit.
- DuplicationThe same scan appears under more than one polling unit.
- LegibilityThe scan is too poor to read one or more figures.
- ReplacementA previously published sheet was swapped after publication.
Limits we state plainly
- IReV publishes scanned sheets and coverage metadata — not machine-readable per-party tallies. Any tally is an independent aggregation, never an official declaration.
- Coverage is partial until INEC finishes uploading; a lead in early uploads is not a result.
- TogetherNigeria provides data and tools, not legal advice and not certification of any outcome.