Ontario, CA October 30, 2014 — Scytl, the worldwide leader in secure online voting and election modernization, enabled electors in the City of Markham to cast their ballots online during the Early Voting Period of the 2014 Municipal Elections on the Scytl secure online voting platform. In addition to providing support to a secure and transparent election process, Scytl Online Voting improves accessibility for persons with disabilities, to those who are travelling and to long distance commuters who find it difficult to reach a Voting Location on Voting Day.
“Markham is known for being one of the first municipalities to hold binding online elections. This is our fourth binding election using online voting,” says Markham City Clerk Kimberley Kitteringham. “One of the main reasons for offering online voting is accessibility, ensuring that our residents who face mobility challenges are able to vote from the comfort of their own home. Just as important is providing a convenient voting channel to the numerous commuters in Markham and those who are out-of-town or unavailable during the Early Voting Period or on Voting Day,” Kitteringham continues.
Beyond convenience and accessibility, Scytl Online Voting addresses the City of Markham´s highest Election priority: greater security and integrity of the voting process. The Scytl platform ensures voter privacy and ballot secrecy and confirms that the outcome of an election accurately reflects the voter’s intentions. Scytl provides patented cryptography and an advanced security framework which includes end-to-end encryption for privacy and confidentially, and end-to-end security through digital signatures and immutable logs to ensure the integrity of the election data.
“Security and privacy are paramount. We felt that Scytl’s online voting security features met the needs of our municipality. Scytl’s international experience in binding elections in complex jurisdictions also factored heavily into our decision to partner with them for the 2014 Municipal Elections,” Kitteringham says.
Across Ontario, 97 communities offered online and telephone voting in the 2014 Municipal Elections representing 1.4 million electors. This is a significant increase from 44 municipalities in 2010 and 19 municipalities in 2006. The increase in the number of municipalities offering online voting comes hand in hand with the significant increase (20%) in the number of voters that leveraged the online and telephone channels in 2014 as compared with the previous election.
“We see a growing trend in the adoption of online voting in Canada, with the City of Markham at the forefront. Scytl is proud to be a part of this movement by providing a more accessible and convenient option for secure online voting,” says Brian O’Connor, Scytl General Manager for North America. “The City of Markham is committed to providing online voting channels to their electorate and we remain just as committed to providing innovative technologies to enfranchise all voters,” he concludes.
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. www.scytl.com
Media Contacts
Maureen Szlemp, Marketing Manager, Scytl
maureen.szlemp@scytl..com, 813-490-7134