In an age where one can do everything online, from donating to political campaigns to buying morning coffee, why is it that we still have to drag ourselves down to the school or church to place our ballots?
While there have been a number of online test-runs in minor elections, companies are beginning to push for some serious change.
Compaq Computer Corporation has announced an agreement with Bellevue-based VoteHere.net to make a change for the big one in November.
The companies will work together to deliver complete solutions for state-sponsored online voting pilots for the November presidential election.
The agreement combines Compaq’s experience in delivering solutions to state and local governments with VoteHere.net’s online voting software.
Compaq’s iPAQ hardware will run VoteHere software to offer voting devices and online polling sites with connections to the Internet. VoteHere.net data centers will deliver accurate ballots over the Internet to each voter and collect and tabulate votes.
“VoteHere has the technology, solid engineering, and experience to provide a solution that has secure authentication and preserves the American tradition of voting anonymously,” says Jim Weynand, Vice President, Government and Education Markets of Compaq Computer Corporation.
The VoteHere.net software addresses the public’s concern of security and ballot privacy using encryption and patent-pending protocols.
“We are looking forward to working with Compaq. The company’s products, skills and customer relationships complement VoteHere well,” says Jim Adler CEO of VoteHere.net. “Compaq has solid experience in state and local government systems and contracts. Teaming with Compaq gives us the technical feet on the street and systems reliability we need to deliver online voting solutions to counties across the country”.