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Intelivote Systems Incorporated: Nova Scotia Company Successfully Delivers Electronic Voting in the United Kingdom
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Location: Blogs News |
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| Posted by: ITNovaScotia Admin |
Friday, June 15, 2007 |
DARTMOUTH, NOVA SCOTIA--(Marketwire - June 15, 2007) - Intelivote Systems Incorporated (ISI), a premier Canadian electronic voting company, has successfully delivered its electronic voting solution to two municipal governments in the United Kingdom.
Dean Smith, President and founder of ISI, says he is very excited about acceptance of the company's technology in the UK.
"Our system was selected because it is technically advanced and it meets the demands of the UK government's security and accessibility requirements," said Smith. He explains that the elections were part of a modernization pilot program being conducted by the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) for the federal government in the UK. The DCA launched the pilot program to learn about making elections more accessible, cost-effective and secure.
Intelivote partnered with US-based Elections Systems and Software (ES&S), the world's largest provider of total elections management solutions. Intelivote also incorporated an encrypted ballot box technology developed by Spanish company, Scytl, into the UK solution.
Elections were conducted for both Rushmoor Borough Council and South Bucks District Council who collectively had over 100,000 eligible voters.
"We have a large number of commuters and service personnel in our borough," said Andrew Colver, Head of Democratic Services for Rushmoor. "(We) have had extremely positive feedback on the convenience the internet voting systems lent to the process, both at home and abroad."
Smith says in discussions about the pilot program it became apparent that providing accessibility to military personnel was important to Rushmoor's election officials. Rushmoor is home to one of the British Army's largest military bases and has personnel actively deployed in many regions of the world.
"It was important to provide a secure mechanism to allow those voters a chance to participate in the election," says Smith. "It was very satisfying to see the technology being used that way."
All eligible voters who registered to vote online, including numerous soldiers on active duty, were mailed a confidential PIN. Using the internet, they entered their PIN along with other security credentials they had previously chosen, and voted in the elections for their districts. Over 12, 000 voters registered to cast their vote online during the election, which ran from April 21 to May 3, 2007.
"Our voters found the option of internet voting very convenient," said Kully Tumber, Democratic Services Officer (Elections) for South Bucks. "With a large base of our residents commuting into London and elsewhere to work, it is not always straightforward for them to make it to the polling station in time. The simplicity of the internet voting system gave the electorate a good alternative way to cast their votes."
Intelivote Systems Inc. is a Dartmouth-based electronic voting company founded in 2003. ISI has provided internet and telephone voting services for municipalities and organizations across Canada and the UK. The comprehensive voting system also addresses the data collection and reporting requirement for corporate surveys, opinion polls and other activities that require mass participation. For more information, visit www.intelivote.com. |
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