Toronto, April 1, 2014 – Scytl, the worldwide leader in secure online voting and election modernization, has been selected by Leamington, Ontario to provide an Online Voting platform to be used in the upcoming October 2014 municipal elections. With the implementation of this new solution, Leamington’s 17,000 voters will no longer need to go to a polling place or mail in their ballots.
While other Ontario municipalities have pioneered the use of internet voting in previous elections as one option an elector may choose to cast a ballot, Leamington is the first Canadian municipality to adopt online-only voting for its residents. With many more municipalities adopting and exploring online voting technology as a sole or additional channel to improve accessibility and convenience and reduce costs, the number of citizens across Canada that will leverage online voting will see significant growth in the upcoming months.
During the advanced voting period and through to Election Day – October 17th through October 27th – Leamington voters will be able to cast their vote online from any Internet-connected mobile and computing device by leveraging the Scytl Online Voting platform. Voter information centres will also be established at the town hall and municipal recreation complex so that voters who need assistance or do not have access to the Internet can still cast their ballot online on computers provided by the municipality.
Leamington was looking for a voting method that would offer convenience and easy accessibility together with security and full anonymity for its voters and saw the Scytl Online Voting platform as a solution to accomplish not only this, but additionally save on election costs. Mayor John Paterson says, “I am excited that voters in Leamington will be casting their votes in this October’s municipal election using the Internet. This voting method will be more convenient and more accessible for our residents and less expensive than previous municipal elections. We are also pleased we will be working with Scytl, whose secure internet voting system has been used successfully in several countries around the world.”
“We are thrilled to be working with the election officials in Leamington to assist them in bringing online voting to their residents. They are in the first in Canada to implement online voting technology as the single voting channel, enfranchising all voters, including those who otherwise could not make it to a polling station to cast their vote,” says Davi Bosch, Ontario Sales Director.
Scytl Online Voting enables voters to securely and easily cast their vote while ensuring privacy and results integrity. Key to Scytl´s security features is the encryption of the ballot on the voter’s device before it leaves the device where it is cast vs. encryption once it arrives to an encryption server as with other solutions. This ensures the voters end-to-end security from the voter to the final tally.
Scytl’s voting receipts, digital signatures and data encryption have been audited and certified by twelve countries and is used in 90% of all binding online elections worldwide. Scytl Online Voting has been successfully implemented in elections in Canada, the United States, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Norway, Australia and India among others.
About Scytl
Scytl is the global leader in secure election management and electronic voting solutions. Specializing in election modernization technologies, Scytl offers the first end-to-end election management and voting platform, providing the highest security and transparency standards currently available. Scytl has capitalized on its more than 18 years of research to develop election-specific cryptographic security technology protected by more than 40 international patents and patent applications, positioning Scytl as the company with the largest patent portfolio of the industry.
Scytl’s solutions have been successfully used in more than 35 countries throughout the world over the last 10 years, including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ecuador, France, Norway, Switzerland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the UAE, India, Iceland and Australia. Scytl is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain with strategic offices in Canada, the United States, Peru and Greece as well as field offices in the UK, Ukraine, Malaysia, India and Brazil. http://www.scytl.com
Media Contacts
Maureen Szlemp, Marketing Manager, Scytl
maureen.szlemp@scytlcom.wpcomstaging.com, 813-490-7134