How It Works
Overview
The eLect™ suite of solutions by Everyone Counts can meet nearly any election need by delivering four unique but compatible election solutions, each powered by the affordable security, transparency, and accessibility of the eLect platform. We strive to deliver peace of mind to election officials and confidence to voters that their ballots will always be reliably counted.
Security
At Everyone Counts, we never stop thinking (and designing) security. Our acclaimed eLect suite, deployed reliably in digital elections world-wide, uses military-grade encryption to encode each ballot. These ballots cannot be read until they’re decrypted using a quorum of election judges’ software keys. Even our software authors—the people who built eLect—cannot read or alter ballots on their way to be counted.
Everyone Counts employs a Triple Data Encryption Standard (“3DES”) and a “master key” paradigm to protect every ballot. Voter authentication, data storage, and the ballots themselves are all protected by systems used to safeguard government and military communication, and in some cases, we exceed the standards (encrypting ephemeral keys with a 2048-bit RSA public key, for example). Every vote is counted as intended.
Everyone Counts brings confidence to voters:
- Verification that ballots voted are ballots counted — Each voter can verify their ballot was received and counted.
- Once submitted by the voter, ballots cannot be altered — Until decrypted by a quorum of election judges using secret protected keys in public at the close of the election, ballots are encrypted and the contents are unreadable and unchangable, even by a Ph.D. with access to supercomputers.
- Ballot protection — eLect secures each ballot in a “digital envelope” with a secret phrase chosen by the voter.
- Ballot secrecy — Only a quorum of election judges with authorized software keys can decrypt votes—and only if all judges are present.
- Transparent software — Unlike “black box” voting machines, eLect does not use secret, proprietary software, and is open 100% to outside inspection.
- Auditability — Unlike DRE machines, eLect uses crypto-digest and public-key signature technology to ensure only Everyone Counts software is running and that there are no additions or alterations.
- All voters can vote privately and independently — Because of our universal access design, voters with disabilities can mark a ballot for themselves.
- No rejected ballots — Every ballot submitted through an Everyone Counts voting solution contains only the data that constitutes a validly marked ballot.
- No "mystery hardware" — eLect runs on an off-the-shelf, industry-standard computer or telephone chosen by the election official or the actual voter.
Download Security Overview White Paper
Transparency
The eLect suite boasts a level of transparency that’s unique in our industry. We’ve designed it to deliver reliable and powerful value to elections of any size or complexity. We allow all voters to check the integrity of an election for themselves, and give administrators unmatched control and assurances of election security.
Everyone Counts has a unique approach to transparency called Open Code Advantage. This methodology enables anyone (not just appointed election officials) to inspect every aspect of the eLect software code. It also ensures that the voting will run on off-the-shelf, open computer hardware. Everyone Counts doesn’t use "mystery software" or "black boxes" at any point in the election.
Accessibility
Everyone Counts knows that too many voters with disabilities are unable to vote privately, or unable to vote at all. Visual, motor, and cognitive impairments prevent millions of citizens from filling out paper forms or using existing voting systems. We provide solutions — highly accessible, secure, and reliable computer- and telephone-based voting solutions that let everyone vote regardless of disability or even geographic location. Administrators can enable overseas voters to use the eLect suite, which ensures secure, private, reliable voting in ways that current substitute ballots typically cannot.
We can help with multilingual elections and incorporating usability features such as high-contrast visual displays and adjustable type sizes. And because our solutions never use proprietary hardware, voters—no matter the impairment—can use their own assistive devices on their own private computers and phones.
Download White Paper on: Secure Remote Voting for Overseas and Disabled Voters
Interested in knowing more about how Everyone Counts designs reliable, affordable, secure digital elections all over the world? Visit our FAQ or contact us today to learn more.