Category: Press

Mobile Voting Expands to Jackson County and Umatilla County in Oregon

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We are delighted to announce the launch of new pilot programs with Jackson County and Umatilla County in Oregon that will provide mobile voting secured by the blockchain to deployed military personnel and overseas United States citizens during the 2019 general elections this year.

We commend Jackson County and Umatilla County teams for seeking new, innovative technologies to improve our election infrastructure and provide secure, auditable, transparent voting options for voters. With this pilot program, Jackson County and Umatilla County are leading the effort in the State of Oregon to make voting more convenient and accessible for deployed military personnel and overseas US citizens. The latest developments in smartphone hardware, encryption and blockchain technology make mobile voting a reality. This is a significant stepping stone that we hope many other states and cities will follow.

Eligible deployed military and overseas voters from both counties now have the option to vote with their smartphones from almost anywhere in the world. By using the Voatz application on their mobile phones, they will forgo the time-consuming process of mailing in an absentee ballot, will receive an auditable confirmation, and will be able to verify their vote within seconds of voting.

With each of these pilots, we gain valuable feedback and continue to incorporate the learnings from the recent experiences of Utah County, the City & County of Denver and the State of West Virginia.

The mobile voting option is being offered in addition to the current absentee options (mail, fax, and email). For uniformed military and overseas citizens, jurisdictions are required by law to send the ballot to voters 45 days prior to the election, allowing sufficient time for the ballots to be returned and counted. Ballots sent to participating voters using the Voatz application will be received within minutes, rather than days or sometimes weeks, and can be returned to the jurisdiction the instant the voter submits their ballot. The ballots that the jurisdiction receives are formatted, printed, and tabulated per standard procedure, and contain an anonymous ID that can be used for a rigorous post-election audit.

To use the Voatz platform, eligible voters must submit an absentee ballot request to their election office indicating a preference for mobile voting, and then complete an authentication process on the Voatz application.

The pilot is a collaboration between Voatz, Jackson County, Umatilla County, Tusk Philanthropies, and the National Cybersecurity Center. To learn more, read the press releases from Tusk Philanthropies.

Utah County Expands Mobile Voting to Include Voters With Disabilities

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We are delighted to announce that Utah County has broadened the eligibility in the ongoing mobile voting pilot as part of the 2019 Municipal General Elections to include voters with disabilities, marking the first time mobile voting will be offered to U.S. citizens other than military and overseas voters.

“This is the first election where we are expanding mobile voting for the disability community and providing them the option to vote from their mobile device,” said Bradley Tusk, founder and CEO of Tusk Philanthropies. “We are making voting accessible to new communities, increasing voter turnout, conducting new pilots and auditing that each election to ensure that votes cast over the blockchain are recorded accurately.”

“We commend election officials, like those in Utah County, who are providing options to voters with diverse needs with this exciting pilot project. We regularly hear from voters with disabilities who need accommodations in order to vote privately and independently, that they value their civic right and duty to vote,” said Sherri Newton, Voting Advocate at the Disability Law Center. “However, the barriers involved with traveling to a polling place make it difficult to vote, which can require them to miss work or can be a threat to their health and safety. These voters are excited about the availability of new, developing technologies that allow them to securely vote at home from their own device, just like many other Utahns have seen with the option of voting by mail.”

The November mobile voting is a continued collaboration between the Utah County Elections Division, Voatz, Tusk Philanthropies and the National Cybersecurity Center. Read the official press release from Tusk Philanthropies here. Eligible voters are able to participate in the 2019 municipal general election by opting in to vote electronically on their smartphones. Voters will fill out an absentee ballot request, complete their identity authentication and verification on the Voatz application, and submit their ballot for the election. Voting began September 20, 2019 and continues through 8:00 pm on Election Day, November 5, 2019.

“By including the disability community in the expansion of mobile voting in Utah County, we are enabling an entire community to vote anonymously, privately, and securely from the comfort of their own home using their own accessible device,” said Forrest Senti, Director of Business and Government Initiatives of the National Cybersecurity Center. “We look forward to collaborating with Utah County and the disability community to conduct the post-election audit to ensure votes cast over the blockchain are recorded accurately.”

“Election officials in Utah County are leading the way when it comes to improving absentee voting methods for citizens with disabilities, deployed military personnel and citizens living overseas,” said Nimit Sawhney, CEO and co-founder of Voatz. “Getting to polling locations, marking a paper ballot, and communicating with election officials are just a few of the challenges that citizens with disabilities face with the traditional voting process. By taking advantage of the various accessibility features available on modern smartphones and tablets, mobile voting provides a safe, private and convenient channel for citizens with disabilities to play a more active role in our democratic process.”

Recently, the Utah County Election Division hosted a livestream with NCC publicly auditing the municipal primary election. The public audit can be viewed here. For more information on the audit and how it was conducted, download the full report and from the National Cybersecurity Center here.

Statement on Intrusion Attempt During WV Election

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Voatz confirms that on October 25, 2018, there was an unsuccessful attempt to gain entry into the Voatz system during the West Virginia mobile voting pilot for the 2018 U.S. Federal Midterm Election. The attempt was detected, blocked and reported in detail to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office. We want to re-emphasize that this attempt targeted our live system and not our replica system made available to researchers as part of our Bug Bounty program.

While probes  into IT systems and general infrastructure across the nation are fairly common, as of January 2017, the Department of Homeland Security designated election infrastructure as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure, a section under DHS’s Government Facilities Sector. As a result, any attempts to tamper with or break into a live election system are illegal. 

Voatz continues to remain vigilant and committed to following industry standard best practices around information security, and partnering with jurisdiction and law enforcement officials to ensure that our election infrastructure remains protected. Voatz is duty bound to continue to report any attempts to breach or tamper with the live system to our clients. Please note that any action taken subsequently by our clients is outside our purview.

 

Why the Slate Story Completely Misses the Point

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In light of a recent article focused on Voatz, we wanted to share our perspective and address some of the incorrect claims made about the 2018 West Virginia pilot. While the questions raised are not unique for a startup company like ours operating in this space, we want to make it very clear that there was nothing in the voting process or the post-election audit process that was a concern.

The article failed to accurately portray the added protections that the mobile blockchain infrastructure provides, or the fact that this pilot was a significant improvement to the current voting methods (fax, email, postal mail) offered to UOCAVA voters.

Delays in sending and receiving absentee ballots via postal mail for overseas military locations are well known, as is the unreliability of the process. Similarly, the return of marked ballots via unencrypted email or traditional fax is hardly a secure or privacy-protecting methodology by any standard.

West Virginia’s mobile voting pilot allowed UOCAVA voters to cast their ballots using the convenience of a personal smartphone after completing a strict identity proofing and verification process, while maintaining the secrecy of the cast ballot for the first time. Every voter received a voter verifiable digital receipt, and an actual, tabulatable paper ballot was generated for each mobile vote received. This is a significant improvement from the current options offered to UOCAVA voters (fax, email, postal mail), which often require manual transcription to tabulatable paper ballots on behalf of the jurisdiction, often revealing anonymity of the voter or inviting the potential for human error.

The county clerks were able to conduct a pre-tabulation audit (unprecedented in US election history) by comparing anonymized copies of the voter verified digital receipts with the marked paper ballots prior to feeding the paper ballots into the scanners for seamless tabulation alongside the primary voting system. There was a 100% match and no discrepancies were detected. Notably, the use of a blockchain-based infrastructure facilitated the security of the aggregate vote, provided unprecedented levels of tamper resistance from a data security perspective and enabled a post-election audit of the end-to-end voting process for the first time. For further detail, please visit our FAQ and refer to this article, which address several misconceptions about our technology.

The pilot was additionally audited by multiple independent security auditors (including former members of the FBI’s elite cyber division), which came back clean with no indications of any successful interference or hacking. Security is never static in time and multiple audits are conducted on a frequent basis as the platform evolves, as new features are incorporated and as new threat vectors emerge.

Voatz was also the first elections company worldwide to launch a public bug bounty program to further vet upcoming versions of its platform from a security perspective.

One of key learnings from the West Virigina pilot was the need to make the post-election audit process easier for a lay person to comprehend without needing to dive into the technical details around cryptography or the blockchain infrastructure. One such enhancement was implemented for the recent pilot elections in Denver, CO wherein a rigorous post-election audit was conducted to verify each submitted mobile ballot, and the audit met the requirements of the jurisdiction. Each submitted mobile ballot produced three records to facilitate this audit: (1) a voter verified digital receipt, sent to the voter at the time of voting (alongside an anonymized copy to the jurisdiction), (2) an actual marked paper ballot, anonymized, formatted for printing and tabulation along with the rest of the jurisdiction’s ballots on Election Day, and (3) the anonymous blockchain records for each marked oval. In Denver’s case, the general public was invited to sign up and participate in a public-facing audit to compare all three records, and to ensure that all votes were counted as submitted. For more information on this unprecedented and historic citizens audit, please read more here.

Lastly, the article fails to recognize the basic nature of how well-designed pilots are conducted (especially in highly regulated, contentious environments such as the elections industry), and the need for startups to protect their IP during this process. We have worked hard to strike a fine balance in this respect while staying committed to being transparent about our technology and the elections we work on as we continue to leverage innovative solutions to improve our election infrastructure.

For stories on how this new voting method facilitated UOCAVA voters to vote more conveniently and securely from their far-away locations, we invite you to read these voter testimonials from Africa, Europe and the Far East.

Voatz Raises $7 Million Series A Led by Medici Ventures and Techstars

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BOSTON, June 6, 2019 — Voatz, a mobile-focused voting and citizen engagement platform, announced today that it has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Medici Ventures and Techstars with participation from Urban Innovation Fund and Oakhouse Partners. The company plans to leverage the funds to enhance the accessibility and usability of its technology, and to grow its security footprint as it launches new pilot programs with states, cities and select international jurisdictions.

Voatz enables citizens to vote in many types of elections and voting events via a secured smartphone or tablet. Earlier this year in March 2019, the company announced a new pilot program with the City and County of Denver, CO to expand absentee voting for deployed military personnel and overseas US citizens during the city’s 2019 municipal elections, which concluded successfully earlier this week. Last year, Voatz also conducted a successful pilot with 24 counties in West Virginia during the 2018 Midterm Elections where deployed military personnel and overseas US citizens leveraged the platform to cast their ballots. This pilot represented the first time that mobile voting secured by a blockchain-based infrastructure had ever been used in a US Federal Election.

“Voting is a great application of blockchain technology,” said Medici Ventures President Jonathan Johnson. “What Voatz is doing to allow more registered voters to participate remotely in elections in a safe and secure way is important. It bodes well for more widespread adoption of the Voatz application. That’s one reason we’ve increased our investment in the company by leading this Series A round.”

“Techstars has been impressed with the vision and drive demonstrated by the Voatz team since their participation in the Techstars Boston Accelerator in 2017. We are thrilled to continue to support Voatz on their mission to modernize the technology of voting and to improve the voting experience for constituents around the world,” said Techstars Partner Cody Simms, who is joining the company’s board as part of this round.

The Voatz platform uses biometrics, encryption and blockchain technology to increase convenience, security and auditability to election systems. In addition to the pilot programs with Denver and West Virginia, Voatz has partnered with state political parties, universities, labor unions, church groups and nonprofits to administer elections using its platform.

“Voatz has the potential to revolutionize the way we vote. By providing access through a mobile device, Voatz can dramatically increase citizen participation, and the company is committed to ensuring everyone votes safely and securely. We’re excited to back Voatz to make voting more accessible and secure,” said Urban Innovation Fund Managing Partner Julie Lein.

“Many of the key issues facing the world today cannot be addressed until we have functioning democracies with high levels of citizen participation. The Voatz election platform provides a radically more inclusive and secure voting process and the team’s progress has been incredible. Programs with states like West Virginia and cities like Denver make it clear that Voatz is on the right track for delivering large scale impact and we are incredibly excited to continue supporting their growth,” said Andrew Maguire, Investing Partner at Oakhouse Partners.

“We are delighted and grateful for the continued support of our existing and new investors to help us accelerate the development and deployment of our technology,” said Voatz Co-Founder & CEO Nimit Sawhney. “We are committed to the steady progress of mobile voting backed by blockchain technology to improve our election infrastructure and make remote voting more accessible and safer.”

About Voatz
Voatz is an award-winning mobile elections platform that is changing the way the world votes. Backed by military-grade security and cutting-edge technology (including biometrics and blockchain infrastructure), Voatz enables smartphone and tablet voting to increase accessibility and security in elections. Since 2016, Voatz has run 39 elections with towns, cities, states, both major state political parties, colleges and universities, and unions. More recently, Voatz conducted the first mobile blockchain vote in US Federal Election history in partnership with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office to empower deployed military and overseas citizens to vote in the 2018 Primary Elections (2 counties) and the 2018 Midterm Elections (24 counties). In March 2019, Voatz was selected by the City/County of Denver, CO to pilot mobile blockchain voting for deployed military and overseas citizens during its 2019 Municipal General Election. Learn more at https://blog.voatz.com

About Medici Ventures:
Launched in 2014, Medici Ventures is a wholly owned subsidiary of Overstock.com, Inc., created to leverage blockchain technology to solve real-world problems with transparent, efficient and secure solutions. Medici Ventures has a growing portfolio of groundbreaking blockchain-focused investments, including t0.com, Peernova, Bitt, SettleMint, Factom, and IdentityMind, Spera and Symbiont. The company’s majority-owned financial technology company, t0.com, executed the world’s first blockchain-based stock offering in December 2016.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact. Additional information regarding factors that could materially affect results and the accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained herein may be found in the Company’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, which was filed with the SEC on May 9, 2019, and any subsequent filings with the SEC.

Contacts
Voatz PR
pr@voatz.com

Gavin Mathis
Method Communications
gmathis@methodcommunications.com

Official Statement from Voatz Regarding Mobile Voting Pilot in West Virginia

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We are thrilled our efforts to make mobile voting a reality are sparking an engaged conversation around the nation’s first mobile voting pilot in a federal election.

In our three years as a company, more than 75,000 votes have been cast on our platform, and we’ve administered more than 30 pilot elections. With each election we’ve learned something new, and we will continue to take the time necessary to ensure that the voting process is secure for voters.

As with the implementation of all new election technologies, the implementation of mobile voting will be a process. It is not something that can, nor that we want to, happen overnight.  

We applaud the State of West Virginia for leading the charge in making voting more convenient for military personnel, their families, and for citizens living overseas. We are proud to be their partner. The initial pilot, conducted earlier this year, was met with enthusiasm and gratitude by those serving abroad. We are excited to continue learning and growing the platform to enable more overseas citizens to vote with greater convenience.

Given the engaged conversation, we wanted to address a number of technical questions that we’ve been asked, which are outlined below:

 

What specific blockchain technology does Voatz use?

The Voatz ‘permissioned’ blockchain is built using the HyperLedger blockchain framework first created by IBM, now supported by the Linux foundation. This type of blockchain is distinctly different than permissionless blockchain frameworks, like Bitcoin. In order to participate in the permissioned blockchain, a voter or auditor must first be verified. In the general election pilot, eight verified validating nodes will be used, split evenly between AWS and Microsoft Azure, each of which are geographically distributed. We believe that the initial rollout of a blockchain based election technology benefits greatly from using such a permissioned approach as it can more accurately emulate how elections are administered presently in the US.

 

Has this been vetted by independent 3rd party auditors?

Yes. Following the first West Virginia pilot, multiple independent technology firms were engaged to vet the Voatz system. Reputable security companies was engaged to conduct penetration testing on the system and to inspect the source code of the Backend Systems and the Voatz smartphone application for both iOS and Android. A public bug bounty program has been engaged to continuously analyze and test the implementation of the blockchain network and the mobile applications. 

Additionally, tools provided by Comodo/HackerGuardian and Qualys SSL labs were used to conduct vulnerability scans and SSL testing.


Has Voatz run pilots before? Have they all been successful?

Yes. To date, Voatz has conducted more than 30 successful pilots that range from state party conventions to student government elections. In the largest election, more than 15,000 votes were cast. The purpose of all the Voatz pilots is to learn, to improve and to deliver on stakeholder expectations. We experienced an instance of an on-premise election in Utah where we were unsuccessful in meeting the needs of the client. We were unable to support the large numbers of voters who simultaneously attempted to download the app and become verified within a short 30-minute period before voting started. While the Voatz team was disappointed with the outcome of the Utah pilot, it was a valuable learning experience that we have used to make changes and improvements to our system, which have been integrated into subsequent pilots.

 

How is privacy preserved in a blockchain infrastructure?

Blockchain technology, when used for financial transactions like Bitcoin, cannot be totally anonymous, rendering the term “pseudonymous”. However, when used in voting with the Voatz application, the identity of the voter is doubly anonymized: first by the smartphone, and second by the blockchain server network.

 

If a user’s phone or mobile network is compromised, is their vote compromised as well?

The Voatz platform goes to significant lengths to prevent a vote from being submitted if a device is compromised. Only certain classes of smartphones that are equipped with the latest security features are allowed to be used. Detecting a compromised mobile network is particularly challenging for a mobile application, which is why ensuring end-to-end vote encryption and vetting the certificates represented by unique IDs stored on the smartphone, are two of the approaches we use to mitigate a compromised mobile network.

 

How can votes stored on the blockchain be audited?

In the West Virginia pilot, a paper ballot is printed for each mobile ballot submitted on the blockchain, then tabulated like a normal absentee ballot. This ballot contains information that can be used in an audit to ensure that every vote cast from a smartphone was counted exactly once, and counted correctly. For the general election, a real-time voter-verified paper trail will be generated, which will allow the state to conduct a post-election audit.

 

Resources
Learn more about Voatz and the pilot elections we’ve conducted: https://blog.voatz.com/
Learn more about the West Virginia pilot: https://wvexperience.voatz.com/faq.html
Additional questions, please email: pr at voatz.com
Released by Voatz, Inc. 7 August 2018. Last updated on 14 September 2018.

Voatz Raises $2.2M Seed Round

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We’re funded 🙂

Now, it’s time to execute. Heartfelt thanks to all our amazing investors for taking this leap of faith with us.

 

Voatz Wins the 50k Gold Award at MassChallenge Boston 2017

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The Voatz team is deeply honored and delighted to have been chosen as one of the 50k Gold Award winners by the esteemed panel of judges at MassChallenge 2017.

Voatz at MassChallenge