City of Toronto Offers Voters with Disabilities Scytl’s Solutions for Internet and Telephone Voting

Scytl, the worldwide leader in secure online  voting and election modernization, has been awarded a contract  by the City of Toronto, Canada to provide improved accessibility for persons with disabilities via Scytl’s secure Online Voting and Scytl’s secure Phone Voting in the October 2014 election.

During the advance voting period from October 14th to 19th, Toronto voters with disabilities will have the option to use Scytl´s end-to-end secure internet and phone voting solutions to cast their vote.  The Scytl platform ensures voter privacy and ballot secrecy and confirms that the outcome of the election accurately reflects the intent of the voters. Scytl election-specific cryptographic security technology is protected by more than 40 international patents and patent applications. Scytl solutions have been successfully used in more than 35 countries throughout the world.

“Enabling accessible, secure and independent voting is a key priority for the City of Toronto,” says Ulli Watkiss, City Clerk. “Scytl’s internet and telephone voting solutions will enable us to further enfranchise Toronto voters with disabilities.”

The City of Toronto’s commitment to ensuring equal access to elections was reinforced in 2010 with the development of the Election Accessibility Plan and the introduction of the Voter Assist Terminals (VAT). In June of 2013, City Council requested staff to implement internet voting for persons with disabilities for the 2014 Municipal Election. After seeking input from community stakeholders and a working group of City staff and going through an extensive RFP process, the City selected Scytl to provide these two new voting channels.

“Scytl is excited to be working with the City of Toronto to enfranchise voters with disabilities via our online and telephone voting solutions. These have been successfully implemented in counties, cities, states and countries across the globe and we are confident that they will meet all of the expectations of the City of Toronto and its voters with disabilities,” says Davi Bosch, Sales Director, Scytl.

The solution to be implemented will ensure that both security and accessibility are provided across all voting channels:

• Vote by phone – The Scytl system provides clear audio instructions to voters making the process quick and easy.
• Vote via the Internet – The system ensures the integrity and end-to-end security from the voter to the final tally.  The system supports multiple assistive devices to facilitate voting from screen readers to sip and puff devices.

Scytl’s voting receipts, digital signatures and data encryption have been audited and certified by twelve countries and are used in 90% of all binding online elections worldwide. Scytl Online Voting has been successfully implemented in elections in Canada, the United States, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Norway, Australia and India among others.

Scytl and the City of Toronto are working closely together to ensure its City and legislative requirements are meet for these two new voting channels.

About Scytl

Scytl is the global leader in secure election management and electronic voting solutions. Specializing in election modernization technologies, Scytl offers the first end-to-end election management and voting platform, providing the highest security and transparency standards currently available. Scytl has capitalized on its more than 18 years of research to develop election-specific cryptographic security technology protected by more than 40 international patents and patent applications, positioning Scytl as the company with the largest patent portfolio of the industry.

Scytl’s solutions have been successfully used in more than 35 countries throughout the world over the last 10 years, including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ecuador, France, Norway, Switzerland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the UAE, India, Iceland and Australia. Scytl is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain with strategic offices in Canada, the United States, Peru and Greece as well as field offices in the UK, Ukraine, Malaysia, India and Brazil. www.scytl.com