Easy to vote and nearly impossible to cheat

Votem’s mission is to make voting easier, faster, and more accessible to enhance voter confidence and engagement. CastIron offers government and non-government bodies the software and services to serve their voters better.

Our philosophy

Every eligible individual should be able to actively participate in democracy by easily and safely voting when, how, and where they want. Democratic institutions generally subscribe to this philosophy yet do little to implement it in practice. Our guiding philosophy is illustrated below:

We should be guided by the dynamics of the voting public we serve – seniors whose needs include accessibility and readability of materials; persons with disabilities who have a reasonable expectation of fair and respectful service that allows for a private and secure voting experience; busy professionals who seek options for voting that match their mobile lifestyles – before and on Election Day; citizens with an array of cultural and ethnic backgrounds who depend on increased language accessibility and voter assistance; and future voters whose expectations may include things not yet considered.

Dean C. Logan

LA County Registrar-Recorder | August 8, 2013

To realize this grand vision, it is impossible to envision the future of democracy where digital elections online are not the global standard. Unfortunately, there exists a wide gap between this inevitability and the progress actually being made towards secure online voting. In fact, most recent efforts, technically and legislatively, have been focused on in-person, paper-based voting.

Some of the types of voting ballots that Votem provides (mobile, paper, and mail-in)
An example of lines of code

Challenges to mobile voting

As major corporate system hacks and election meddling by foreign nation states dominate the news cycle, it is no surprise that digitally enabled systems pose serious challenges. In the context of elections, these challenges revolve around reconciling the tension between strong privacy and security requirements.

Our solution

Consequently, in an effort to modernize the democratic process, Votem leverages our Proof of Vote® Protocol, a blueprint for secure online voting. The objective of this Protocol is to help election management bodies introduce online voting with levels of security and safety that are superior to in-person, paper-based elections, with restored trust, increased access, voter verifiability, and better public transparency.

Votem's GitHub with a green checkmark over it

Specifically, Proof of Vote focuses on the following goals:

 

It is inaccurate to say that paper ballots increase transparency and trust; there is a distinct lack of clarity in our current voting process. When a voter casts a paper ballot in a polling place, how does she fundamentally know that her vote was properly submitted and tallied? In most elections today, even with procedural and legislative support, paper trails are not worth the paper they are printed on.

Our current election infrastructure does not earn the trust of those using it, rather, it demands it without offering the verifiable proof that a voter’s vote was cast and counted as intended. Voters must be provided sufficiently convincing evidence that election integrity has not been compromised.

Mobile technology is passed its point of ubiquity; imagine if your only option for filing your taxes was to appear at the IRS in person, your only option for banking was to show up to your local branch at their hours, and your only option for shopping was to go to the store. It is not just a matter of convenience; people often risk their lives to participate in elections, and far too many lose their lives doing so.

Tech-savvy? Check out our GitHub!