Despite problems in the British Columbia Liberal elections, Intelivote, an electronic voting company from Dartmouth, is setting its sights on the state of Maharashtra, India. Intelivote also has a half-million dollar contract to run the internet portion of Halifax’s city council elections.
Intelivote allows for people to vote from the comfort of their home, online or by phone. With the help of Personal Identification Numbers and additional information from registered voters, Intelivote compiles virtual ballots like a polling station.
Electronic voting is still heavily debated. Citing possible security issues and glitches within the system itself, some argue we should stick to traditional pen-and-paper ballots. But Dean Smith, the man behind Intelivote, says the electronic system is safe and often scrutinized for mishaps.
Smith has been learning from the few hiccups in the last events conducted by Intelivote during the past few years. Two weeks ago, Liberal party members in BC suggested they postpone voting day since thousands of members had never received their PINs. Intelivote responded by setting up call centres to give away codes. According to Smith, the codes were mostly missing from rural sections of BC.
Since then, Intelivote has added one more week to its mailing system. Smith and Canada Post representatives still fail to understand why the invitations never made it to the party members. “We apply more thought to it than trial and error,” says Smith. “We’ve learned procedural approaches.”
Smith’s company was selected to run Maharashtra’s next five elections and will be running tests with a new voting system this coming June.
“Everyone and their dog has a cellphone in India,” says Smith.
Voters in India will be asked to register their cellphones with their individual International Mobile Equipment Identity, a code permanently installed in every phone. Along with their PIN, received by text message, voters will have the combination required to cast their e-votes.
Halifax council will reassess its relationship with Intelivote before the October 2012 council elections.
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This article appears in Apr 21-27, 2011.
It’s going to happen one day or another – let’s get through the learning stages now. We’ll only get better by trying to get better.
“Smith’s company was selected to run Maharashtra’s next five elections and will be running tests with a new voting system this coming June.”
“Halifax council will reassess its relationship with Intelivote before the October 2012 council elections. “
The Indian contract with Intelivote deal fell through … didn’t happen. They lost the Halifax 2012 election contract to a Spanish company.
The PR that comes out of Intelivote is dubious at best