Category: Company News

Every year the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks, and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO) organizes an annual conference.

The 2023 AMCTO conference is a unique opportunity for municipal professionals, key vendors and suppliers, and special guests to attend. It’s the place to exchange new ideas, and explore important topics, such as internet voting for Ontario municipalities!

Known as ‘The Municipal Experts’, AMCTO offers a breadth of expertise and knowledge through year-round education and professional development programming. Also, through our members across a range of municipal operation areas and legislative issues. They are recognized as an influential voice for local government professionals regarding key management and legislative issues affecting the sector.

Simply Voting is attending the 2023 AMCTO conference, which is taking place June 11-14 in Niagara Falls! We’re looking forward to having some great discussions with municipal staff and leaders from across the province. Drop by and speak with us at booth #44!

As a trusted provider of secure and transparent online voting solutions, Simply Voting is dedicated to empowering municipalities with the tools they need to run efficient, inclusive, and reliable elections. The AMCTO conference provides the perfect platform to showcase how our technology can streamline voting processes, enhance accessibility, and build public confidence in electoral outcomes. Let’s work together to shape the future of voting!

In 2022, Simply Voting proudly helped 50 municipalities deliver successful elections driven by internet voting, and we can’t wait to help deliver many more come 2026!

At Simply Voting, we understand that companies can and should do more to have a positive impact on the world around them and the communities in which they exist. In addition to annual donations to charitable organizations voted upon by our staff, we seek to directly impact our local community in Montreal with volunteering efforts as well.

This year we partnered with Tree Canada, a national non-profit organization dedicated to planting and nurturing trees in rural and urban environments. Our mission: help beautify and “green” a local elementary schoolyard with ten trees to ensure young students could benefit from shade coverage.

So on a comfortably warm Friday our staff took time out of their workday, and with tools in hand and water bottles at the ready, we did just that! We worked in teams, taking on specific roles to make our work efficient. Along the way, our staff learned about several nuances around planting and caring for trees, and overall we embraced and matched the passion from our partners.

While we were tired and sore after hours of planting, and in between desperate dreams of ice cream, we could see how the literal sweat and effort would make a lasting addition to the schoolyard for generations of students. Our staff live nearby so we will see firsthand how the trees grow and take root.

We would like to thank Tree Canada for being an excellent partner and helping assist Simply Voting to make a positive impact in our community, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Tree Canada in the future.

Our bottom line mission at Simply Voting has always been providing secure, trustworthy, and efficient e-democracy solutions for the organizations we serve. But we also understand that companies can and should do more to have a positive impact on the world around them and the communities in which they exist.

Every year we survey our staff for potential charitable organizations that continue to make a difference in our community and the world, and internally we run our own secret ballot to determine where our charitable focus will go. We are pleased to announce that for 2022, Simply Voting has made a $15,000 donation to each of the following organizations:

Suicide Action Montreal (SAM)

With the belief that suicide is preventable, Suicide Action Montreal (SAM)’s mission is to help prevent it through greater access to information, quality services, and resources. SAM provides direct support to those who are lonely, depressed and contemplating suicide. They also assists those left behind by suicide including the family, the individual’s social network, and others. SAM provides prevention measures, such as education, awareness, and strategies towards prevention; provides a 24/7 telephone helpline and digital intervention line; and provides postvention to support recovery and healing. For more information, please visit https://www.suicideactionmontreal.org.

Mission Nouvelle Generation

Mission Nouvelle Generation is an organization that strives to help underprivileged people in their emotional, psychological, spiritual and material needs by providing support and guidance toward appropriate resources within the Mission. Services include: a food bank that provides food to over 1,500 families each week in Montreal; bike workshops that recycle and repair old bicycles; a low-cost general mechanical service; a community garden; and a store that offers new and used goods at low prices. For more information, please visit https://www.missionnouvellegeneration.org.

Simply Voting is proud to support the missions and efforts of these charitable organizations.

Giving Back in 2021 to Charitable Donations is part of our tradition. The COVID-19 pandemic has created enormous challenges which have significantly impacted all our daily lives. At Simply Voting, we continue to work around the clock to support organizations conducting safe elections online.

Alongside our work in the voting world, in 2020 we wanted to contribute to efforts being made by our local medical community to combat the pandemic, so Simply Voting donated $10,000 to the McGill Emergency COVID-19 Research Fund.

In 2021 we wanted to further expand our giving back efforts. We surveyed our staff for potential charitable organizations that continue to make a difference in our community and the world. Internally we ran our own secret ballot to determine where our focus would be this year. So, we are pleased to announce that Simply Voting has made a $10,000 donation to each of the following organizations:

• The Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal (NWSM)

The shelter helps support and provide frontline services to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women and children to promote their empowerment and independence, by providing a safe environment where women can begin to rebuild their lives.

The NWSM is the only women’s shelter in Montreal, QC area that provides services exclusively to Aboriginal women and their children. For more information, please visit https://www.nwsm.info.

 

• Tree Canada
  

Tree Canada is the only national non-profit organization dedicated to planting and nurturing trees in rural and urban environments. Through their programs, research and engagement efforts, they have helped restore tree cover in areas hit by natural disasters. They guided communities in managing their urban forests, supported over 700 schoolyard greening projects and organized urban forest conferences. To date, with community partners and sponsors, they have planted more than 83 million trees. For more information, please visit www.treecanada.ca. Simply Voting’s donation will help sponsor Tree Canada’s Community Tree Grant program in the Montreal, QC area.

Simply Voting is proud to support the missions and efforts of these charitable organizations.

2020 Holiday Schedule: Please note that our office will be closed from December 21, 2020 through January 1, 2021.

Skeleton staff will be available to support ongoing elections. If you require emergency support during this time, please fill out the support form on our website and set the priority to “emergency”. One of our team members will follow up with you promptly.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season, and a very democratic New Year!

 

Simply Voting’s very first customer was the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU); thus, we are proud to be able to make a donation of $10,000 to COVID-19 Research to support the McGill community now, just as they supported us at the very beginning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created enormous challenges when it comes to public health, and has significantly impacted the ways in which we live and work. At Simply Voting, we are working around the clock to support organizations as they shift to conducting elections online. Alongside our work in the voting world, we also wanted to contribute to efforts being made by our local medical community to combat the pandemic.

The McGill Emergency COVID-19 Research Fund has brought together more than 250 researchers who are specialized in infectious and immune-mediated diseases in order to engage in vital research that encompasses conducting clinical trials, creating new diagnostic tools, and developing drug therapies.

The McGill research community has played a leading role in the race to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Their experts has already worked with partners around the world to combat the spread of the coronavirus and help treat sufferers.

For more information regarding the McGill Emergency COVID-19 Research Fund, please visit their website.

An Ethics section has been added to our website, where you can read more about Simply Voting’s ethics, including our Code of Ethics and access to ethics related reporting.

The importance of ethics within the elections industry cannot be understated. While companies like Simply Voting are often involved in only a slice of organizational governance, platforms like our own can be critical in ensuring all stakeholders in the democratic process feel elections are conducted transparently and with integrity. Voting systems, and the companies and employees that maintain them, must engender trust in all those involved. To this end, we believe defining the ethics and values that all of us follow at Simply Voting is integral to servicing the needs of our customers and all other involved stakeholders.

Simply Voting maintains a Code of Ethics, which all employees are trained on and attest to on an annual basis. We also maintain an “ethics hotline” where employees or other outside parties may anonymously report ethical problems related to various areas of concern. An Ethics section has been added to our website, where you can read more about Simply Voting’s ethics, including our Code of Ethics and access to ethics related reporting.

We value our customer’s trust in our platform, in our employees, and in our business practices. We know that elections are often mission critical for organizations, and our promise to you is that we at Simply Voting will always strive to maintain the highest ethical principles and standards.

As the world continues to adapt to the COVID–19 pandemic, many organizations, companies, and institutions are re-evaluating the way they interact with one another and conduct their day-to-day business. Fortunately the impact of COVID-19 on Simply Voting has been relatively mild.

Demand for internet elections remains strong – in fact, stronger than ever due to a shift from in-person voting to remote voting due to social isolation measures. Our workforce is already equipped for and accustomed to telecommuting which, despite our beautiful office space, has always been a big part of our corporate culture. The data centres and other technical infrastructures of our voting system continue to perform at full service levels.

To prevent spread of the virus and safeguard Simply Voting’s operations we’ve taken a number of steps including:

• Requiring all employees to telecommute except for a rotating skeleton staff at our office space.
• Limiting non-essential business travel and using collaboration tools to conduct virtual meetings with our customers, partners and employees.
• Ensuring that employees have flexible working arrangements and access to childcare to remain productive throughout school closures.
• Following best practices recommended by local and international public-health authorities for safety and sanitizing procedures.
• Closely monitoring our vendors and suppliers to minimize potential upstream risks to our service levels.

We wish to reassure our customers and those who are now seeking online voting services, that we are operating at full capacity and do not anticipate any disruption in our ability to deliver service throughout a prolonged pandemic environment. Simply Voting stands ready to ensure that e-democracy continues in these difficult and trying times.