BALTIMORE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Scytl, the premier provider of secure remote voting technology solutions in the United States for overseas military and civilian voters, today announced that two new patented solutions for overseas voting are now commercially available with Scytl’s Pnyx.SecureBallot online ballot delivery and marking platform. Both solutions are designed specifically to improve the processes for election officials supporting overseas voters as required under the federally-mandated Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act. The innovative technology implemented in both solutions is protected by patents and available for licensing to other election technology providers.
“We are pleased to provide our latest absentee ballot technology that has worked so well in King County, Washington to election jurisdictions and technology providers throughout the country,” said Hugh Gallagher, Scytl’s Managing Director, Elections in the U.S. “Our goal has always been to provide secure and cost-effective solutions that increase the speed and efficiency of ballot processing.”
The first MOVE-compliant solution – the Ballot Choice Barcode (BCB) - addresses the issue of duplicating ballots for election officials. The BCB is an innovative process which utilizes commercially available off-the-shelf technology (a 2D handheld barcode scanner and a standard office printer) to allow a voter’s ballot which has been marked onscreen and returned via email, fax or post, to be quickly and accurately duplicated for tabulation by an optical scanner – without compromising the privacy of the voter. BCB was first utilized in the 2010 General Election by King County, WA as a component of Scytl’s Pnyx.SecureBallot online ballot delivery and marking platform provided under the Federal Voting Assistance Program’s MOVE compliance project.
The second MOVE-compliant solution - the Absentee Data Barcode (ADB) - addresses the issue of keying voter data manually into a voter registration system from either Federal Post Card Applications (FPCAs) or absentee ballot application requests which were completed online and printed for postal return with signature. Election officials can quickly scan the ADB on the returned application into their voter registration system hopper or holding bin for processing in accordance with state and system requirements - like external agency information currently provided to election officials (DMV, Vital Statistics, Courts, etc). ADB expedites both the inclusion of new overseas voter information into the list of registered voters and its accuracy while ensuring the integrity of state rules for voter eligibility are adhered. ADB utilizes a standard 2D handheld barcode scanner like those currently used by many election officials for processing received absentee voter envelopes and Election Markup Language (EML) which is a common data format endorsed by the U.S. Government and is in process of being adopted by election equipment and software vendors.
“We’re proud to offer technological advancements that provide new levels of speed, efficiency and cost-savings to our customers,” said Gallagher. “For example, in King County, WA – the 13th largest county in the U.S.- there’s no more re-making of absentee ballots for overseas voters, where prior to using Scytl’s new, MOVE-compliant solutions, several thousand ballots had to be re-made by King County’s staff and temporary election workers, accounting for hundreds of hours of overtime. Scytl provides a much more efficient solution that saves a lot of time and money while further ensuring accuracy in the vote count.”
About Scytl (www.scytl.com) – Scytl is a worldwide leader in the development of secure technology solutions for the modernization of elections. The company’s solutions incorporate unique cryptographic protocols that enable Scytl to carry out a variety of election processes in a completely secure and auditable manner. Scytl’s election technology has been successfully deployed for United States overseas and military voters since 2008 and, in conjunction with the Federal Voting Assistance Program, Scytl's online ballot delivery technology for military and overseas voters was successfully used in 14 states during the November 2010 general elections enabling overseas voters to securely receive electronic ballots while providing election officials with administrative efficiency to manage the complex overseas voting processes.
Scytl's current patent portfolio is composed of more than 40 international patents in the area of security applied to the election process and has licensed the use of many of its technology innovations to other providers. Election technology providers should contact Hugh Gallagher at hugh.gallagher@scytl.com for information about the aforementioned patented technology or the licensing of any of Scytl’s election solutions.
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