IBM helps democracies worldwide simplify elections with Smart Voting
Press Release
Brussels, 14 September 2011 – IBM (NYSE: IBM) presented today an electronic voting solution suite that helps countries to simplify the organization of their elections, deliver quicker results and is fraud resistant. The technology is intuitive and easy to use for voters around the world. The solution is easily adaptable to each countries requirements and legislation for elections. It helps governments to set-up elections quicker, more efficient and for a lower cost. The technology is fully developed in Belgium, a pioneer country of electronic voting.
Belgium already has a 15 year tradition of electronic voting; 44% of the kingdom’s electorate has voted electronically in the past. Based on an analysis by a consortium of all Belgian Universities on worldwide best practices for the electronic voting, IBM – together with partners Skillteam, Zetes and Arco – developed a solution suite for electronic voting. The latter complies with all standards and requirements suggested by the universities.
Zetes, the European leader of automatic identification & mobility solutions, developed a Voting Kiosk solution. These are especially useful in areas with high population density. National authorities can choose from a number of solutions, using Zetes’ Voting kiosks: eVoting with smartcard; eVoting with paper trail (with or without intelligent ballot box); and internet eVoting. For areas with lower population density, Arco developed the Digipen. This system is developed to mimic the voting with pen and paper as much as possible. Voters receive their ballot and a digital pen and use the pen to indicate their vote on the ballot. The pen registers the vote and stores it as encrypted data in its internal memory.
In both cases, the votes – be it with smartcard, paper trail including a 2D barcode or Digipen – are officially registered by the president of the election bureau. The encrypted votes are transferred on a secured medium, e.g. a USB-stick. The paper trails are stored in sealed ballot boxes for audit reasons.
IBM offers its services to governments to organize the full back-office of an election. We not only offer administrative assistance, we also provide the logistics, deployment of hard- and software, and technical support on the spot or via helpdesk and call centers
Steve Dierckens, CEO Skillteam: “Flexibility is the key element of the solution. To enable this you need – preferably – open source software that can be used as glue between the different components of the voting suite. Skillteam has the experience and expertise to design and deploy this software.”
Alain Wirtz, CEO of Zetes: “As in every project where people’s identity and democracy are at stake, security plays an essential role. Zetes has a strong background of setting-up very sensitive projects for governments, be it the production of the electronic identity cards in Belgium and Israel, or the voters’ enrolment for the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Voting Kiosks we have developed meet the strictest standards in the market, guaranteeing a 100% fraud-free election, while giving Authorities a high level of flexibility.”
Eddy Suffeleers, IBM client Solution Executive: “We looked for a solution that was easy in use, both for the voter as for the people staffing the election offices during Election Day. But it also needed to be secured, fraud resistant, scalable, flexible and capable of processing the votes much faster. We think our solution met all these requirements. With this technology, we help governments to set-up elections quicker, more efficient and for a lower cost. We simplified the organization of elections, bringing it into reach of every democratic nation on earth. As we see it, elections are still the greatest expression of democracy.”
For more information about IBM: ibm.com
For more information about Skillteam: skillteam.com
For more information about Zetes: zetes.be
For more information about Arco: arco.be
INFORMATION FOR THE MEDIA
Images (Hi-Res): http://bit.ly/pW9z0m
BeVoting Study of Electronic Voting Systems: http://bit.ly/qp45r6
Media Contact
Yves Van Seters
IBM External Communications & Media Relations
T : +32 478 27 10 33
Twitter : @YvesVS
Sarah Dheedene
ZETES Corporate PR Manager
T : +32 473 55 21 58
E : Sarah.Dheedene@zetes.com
