UK officials get insights into how technology can modernize manual elections

London, United Kingdom – February 13, 2020 - Smartmatic, the world’s leading elections company, showcased its innovative technology in two of the most important election-related events in the United Kingdom, the Solace Elections Conference 2020 and the Association of Electoral Administrators’ Annual Conference.

“In the UK, Returning Officers are being asked to deliver democratic events with far greater frequency, under shrinking budgets and with smaller teams. The goodwill and skills of just a few support the foundations of the UK’s democracy,” said Sonya Anderson, Smartmatic’s senior election partner for the UK. “These two important conferences give us the opportunity to show election officials how they can use secure technology to increase the accuracy and efficiency of their own election processes.”

Attendees at both events had a chance to see firsthand an innovative electronic counting solution developed jointly by CGI and Smartmatic. The technology can ensure ballot papers are scanned and processed quickly and accurately, with full auditability of results.

Smartmatic also showcased its voter authentication and pollbook technology. The VIU-815, is a device created to support field and poll workers with a variety of registration and Election Day processes, like incident reporting and voter turnout. Leveraging biometric technology, it can help authenticate voters before they are issued with a ballot.

A fully auditable and secure electronic voting machine was also available for attendees, allowing them to experience how seamless the voting experience can be. The Smartmatic touchscreen voting machines offer the highest levels of usability, accessibility and security, guaranteeing independent voting for all voters. They also produce a paper audit trail for every vote cast.

The Solace Annual Election Conference was held on January 23 in London. The event gathered election stakeholders from across the country, giving them a chance to discuss key issues facing Returning Officers and everyone working diligently to keep election services safe from challenge.

Blackpool, a seaside town in the North West of England, hosted this year’s Association of Electoral Administrators Annual Conference. During the three-day event (February 2 – 5) over 300 administrators and election experts attended workshops and fringe meetings and discussed how to adapt the electoral system to ever changing challenges.