The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Post-Election Phase with an Emphasis on Iran's Legal and Electoral System

Abstract

As a decisive stage in the electoral process, the post-election phase includes final vote counting and aggregation, reviewing and handling protests and complaints, auditing the election process, and having competent authorities confirm or invalidate the results. The accuracy, speed, transparency, and monitoring of this stage play an important role in ensuring accurate election results and maintaining public trust. In this context, artificial intelligence, with capabilities such as rapid data processing, machine vision, and pattern recognition, provides the capacity to improve post-election processes, especially in counting and aggregation of votes, reducing human errors, identifying potential contradictions, facilitating the audit of results, and supporting the handling of protests and complaints. However, this technology faces challenges such as algorithmic error and bias, lack of transparency in how intelligent systems operate, the security and integrity of electoral data, determining legal liability for system errors, the legal validity of AI outputs, and the need to maintain human oversight. This study examines the opportunities and challenges of using artificial intelligence in the post-election phase, focusing on the status of Iran's legal and electoral system, using a descriptive-analytical method and library resources. The findings of the study show that the use of artificial intelligence can help improve the health and efficiency of the post-election process by increasing the speed and accuracy of vote counting and aggregation, reducing human errors, and strengthening audit capabilities; however, the lack of a clear legal framework, ambiguity in the status and legal value of the output of intelligent systems, and the need to ensure transparency, accountability, and human oversight are among the most important challenges facing the use of this technology in Iran's electoral system. Accordingly, using artificial intelligence in Iran's post-election phase requires formulating and completing legal and institutional requirements, ensuring effective audit and oversight capabilities, and establishing clear mechanisms to address electoral errors and protests.