Category: Voting System

When it comes to protecting data, two important areas to focus on are encryption in transit and encryption at rest.

Encryption in transit involves encrypting data while it’s being transferred, so that it cannot be intercepted as it travels from point A to point B. Communication between the voting system and the browsers of voters, election organizers, and Simply Voting staff has always been encrypted at all times to protect against attacks using strong protocols and ciphers. This is best practice for encryption in transit.

Encryption at rest involves encrypting data where it is stored, so that it cannot be used by an attacker that gains access to it.

The most sensitive information – passwords and votes – have always been encrypted by Simply Voting prior to being stored in the voting system’s database. This is an added layer of security to protect against a breach of the database.

Thanks to a recent upgrade of our database software, all data is now encrypted by the database engine before it is saved using a technology called Transparent Data Encryption. Not just passwords and votes but also elector information, candidate details, customer information, etc.. This is done using industry standard AES-256 encryption, and it applies to older data as well as new data moving forward. This technology provides an added layer of security to protect against unauthorized access to the storage used by the database.

Bottom line, Simply Voting is always working on better ways to protect our customers and their data.

Now, account recovery and password resets are available on the Election Manager login page.

E-democracy and elections are often some of the most important activities an organization undertakes internally, and our mission at Simply Voting has always been to help ensure our customers protect their critical projects. To this end, we’ve recently rolled out an improvement to customer account security.

As you may have seen already over the past couple of weeks, or will see upon your next account login, you will be prompted to complete Security Questions and Answers.

The Security Questions and Answers tool joins our other newly improved Account Recovery and Password Reset tools for customer accounts. You will find these new tools located on the Election Manager login page, as shown below and highlighted in orange. Now if your forget your Voting Website login, you can recover your account by clicking on the appropriate link. And if you forget your Password you can similarly reset your password without going through Simply Voting staff by answering your security questions. If you are ever locked out of your account or have any issues, our Support Department is always just an email or phone call away!

The Account Security section inside of the Election Manager tool, on the Settings page, is also where you can update your password or adjust security questions as necessary, such as during the transition of account ownership from one election official to another election official from your organization if you have periodic staffing changes.

A step-by-step walk through for recovering your account or resetting your account’s password can be found inside our Help Portal as well.

And as always, don’t hesitate to reach out to our Support Department if you have any questions or concerns about this enhancement, or anything else with which we might be able to assist!

We are pleased to announce an enhancement within the Election Manager for managing question and option reordering on your ballot. You can now save time by using the reordering feature which employs a drag and drop interface.

This update saves time and reduces the complexity of adjusting your ballot layout. Whether you’re managing a simple election or a more complex one, this tool ensures flexibility and efficiency in creating a well-structured ballot.

Key Benefits:

• Drag-and-Drop Simplicity: Rearrange questions and options in seconds by clicking and dragging them into the desired order.
• Improved Workflow Efficiency: Quickly adjust the layout without navigating multiple menus or manual entry.
• Enhanced Accuracy: Visualize the final ballot format as you reorder, minimizing errors.

For example, imagine managing the placement of questions on your election ballot: simply drag the questions to their new positions, and your updates are instantly reflected.

This enhancement is part of our ongoing commitment to provide intuitive tools that make the election management process seamless.

Below is an example of managing the placement of questions on your election ballot.

Below is an example of managing the fixed order for options for a given question.

This new enhancement can be found detailed in our extensive Help Portal, so give it a go in your next election!

Contact us if you need more information!

We are pleased to announce an enhancement to our existing Kiosk Voting feature.

Kiosk voting, for those who are unfamiliar with this type of voting, is in-person online voting where voters line up in queues typically and vote from communal devices — such as at an Annual General Meeting, or perhaps at your organization’s headquarters or branch offices, or some other designated in-person voting location. Kiosk voting often occurs alongside standard remote online voting, but it can also occur in place of any remote online voting too.

Inside of your Election Manager account, at the bottom of the Settings page, you will find a revamped Kiosk Voting Website section. Like before, you can still manage the “success text” for all kiosks.

Now instead of having a specific kiosk voting URL, to activate and launch a kiosk there is a new Activate Kiosk button. This enhancement may seem very minor at first-glance, but we’ve drastically increased the security of your kiosks through allowing total control of what devices are (and thus are not) configured for kiosk voting by election administrators.

As part of our feature enhancement, we’ve also developed and published a new Kiosk Voting Guide, available on the Help page, to better guide customers through setup and maintenance of voting kiosks. Moreover, if you have the Multiple Administrators feature activated on your account, we have also added a new permission to control access to “kiosk activation” for your users.

If you have never thought about incorporating any live in-person voting into your election management, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us so we can help you evaluate whether incorporating kiosk voting into your electoral event is a worthwhile endeavor.

We just launched a “warning for undervotes” feature. One of Simply Voting’s core guiding principles revolves around simplicity and ease of use from the voter’s perspective. Our aim is to always ensure that our interface and how information is presented to voters is streamlined and valuable.

To this end, Simply Voting has launched a small improvement to our voter interface which will help ensure that voters execute their vote to the allowed fullest extent. When a voter interacts with a question that allows multiple optional selections, if the voter selects less than the pre-configured maximum number of options, a special note, a warning for undervotes, will appear next to the appropriate question when the voter reaches the Confirmation page.

For example, in the screenshot above (taken from our demo at demo.simplyvoting.com in case you want to see it in action), the Board of Directors question allows for voters to select up to 3 candidates. This sample voter only selected 2, and a new “note” has been added to bring this to the voter’s attention. The voter can do what they wish with this information!

This feature is particularly valuable in elections where voters may inadvertently misunderstand the number of selections allowed or forget to make their full range of choices. By gently prompting voters to review any undervotes, we aim to reduce accidental omissions and empower voters to make more informed decisions. Importantly, this warning is non-intrusive, voters are not required to make additional selections if they intentionally choose to cast fewer votes. This strikes a balance between guiding voters and respecting their autonomy.

Contact us if you need more information!

As of today we are requiring voters and election organizers to connect to Simply Voting using TLS 1.2. The TLS protocol is used by browsers to encrypt communication between the visitor and the website. Its use is indicated by a green padlock in the browser window confirming that the connection is secure. TLS 1.2 is the modern version that supports the latest cryptographic ciphers, and is much more secure than TLS versions 1.0 and 1.1 which have been proven vulnerable to hacking.

By requiring TLS 1.2, older browsers that do not support this version will not be able to access the voting website or Election Manager. Modern TLS is supported by Firefox 28+, Chrome 33+, Opera 19+, Safari 7+, iOS Safari 5.1+, Android Browser 51+ and Internet Explorer 11.

Users stuck on older operating systems such as Windows XP or Mac OS X Mountain Lion may still access Simply Voting by using an alternative browser such as Chrome or Firefox. Users of Windows 7 that for whatever reason are prevented from updating Internet Explorer or installing an alternative browser can manually enable TLS 1.2 on Internet Explorer 8, 9 or 10 by checking it off in the Advanced tab in Internet Options.

After reviewing our logs we’ve determined that on average 0.2% of voters are using insecure browsers. This number will decrease over time as computers are updated, replaced, or have alternative browsers installed. Many large websites such as PayPal have already made this step, and there’s an approaching deadline of June 30, 2018 for websites to require a minimum of TLS 1.1 in order to remain PCI compliant (a security standard which Simply Voting adheres to) so many more will follow. While Simply Voting strives to make the voting system work with all browsers, we also place great importance on security. The time has come to drop support for insecure browsers, to make a safer voting system.

Simply Voting has a new feature for organizations who are interested in gaining a better idea about where in the world electors cast their votes – a Turnout by Country report!

How to Create a Turnout by Country Report? *

Glad you asked. It’s simple.

1) Log in to your Simply Voting account to open the Election Manager.
2) At the bottom of the initial page, you will see your Elections as hyperlinks. Click on the Election for which you’d like to generate the report.
3) Hover over the header highlighted in yellow and select Turnout Report from the drop-down menu.
4) Click on Download Turnout by Country CSV to easily review what countries Electors voted from.

The Turnout by Country report provides organizations with valuable insights into voter engagement on a global scale. By analyzing this data, administrators can better understand voting patterns, identify trends in participation across different regions, and tailor future outreach efforts to maximize voter involvement. This feature is especially useful for international organizations or elections with a geographically diverse electorate, helping to paint a clearer picture of global participation in the democratic process.

*For Fully Managed Elections, let your Project Manager know that you’d like a copy of these neat statistics.

Contact us if you need more information!