Safevote

The available record does not state when Safevote was founded, identify its founder, or provide a continuous corporate history. It describes Safevote Inc. as a privately held United States company whose proprietary voting technology has been used in internet, offline, and hybrid election settings. Most of the company’s capital was reportedly located in the United States, but the references do not identify investors, a parent organization, or a formal corporate group. Safevote’s documented activity spans both public and private elections. Its technology was reportedly used in legally binding elections involving hundreds of thousands of voters in countries and regions including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Brazil, and Africa. The source does not provide enough detail to assign particular elections to particular years or to describe the relevant election laws, clients, technical implementations, or outcomes. Accordingly, the international deployment record can be stated only at the level supported by the available reference. The most precisely described project is a public-voting shadow election in Contra Costa County, California, during the 2000 United States election. It involved 307 voters and served as an official test conducted in parallel with the public election. The exercise is significant because it placed internet-enabled voting technology in a public-election evaluation context, but it was a test rather than the legally binding election itself. Safevote also participated in the intellectual and civic discussion around electronic voting. It contributed to The Bell, a non-partisan voting newsletter whose last edition was issued in February 2001. The company’s technical perspective is additionally represented in publications and conference material concerning trustworthy elections, secure electronic voting, privacy, security, auditability, and the commercial development of electronic voting. These works include discussion of a witness-voting system, a paper on private and auditable internet voting, and a panel on the business of electronic voting. Ed Gerck is named in these materials, but the supplied sources do not establish whether he held an executive position at Safevote. No reliable current information is supplied about Safevote’s website, headquarters, product catalog, customer base, financial performance, leadership, ownership, or continuing operations. Its present corporate status therefore remains unknown.

• 2010

  Publication on the witness-voting system

  [1]Safevoteen.wikipedia.org

  Ed Gerck authored an invited opening chapter on the witness-voting system in a Springer volume concerning trustworthy elections and new directions in electronic voting.

• 2003

  Publication on private and auditable internet voting

  [1]Safevoteen.wikipedia.org

  A Safevote-associated publication by Ed Gerck addressed private, secure, and auditable internet voting in a specialist electronic-voting volume.

• 2002

  Participation in electronic-voting business panel

  [1]Safevoteen.wikipedia.org

  Ed Gerck, associated with Safevote in the cited material, participated in a panel on the business of electronic voting published in proceedings connected with the Financial Cryptography conference.

• 2001

  Contribution to The Bell

  [1]Safevoteen.wikipedia.org

  Safevote contributed to The Bell, a non-partisan voting newsletter whose final edition was issued in February 2001.

• 2000

  Contra Costa County shadow-election test

  [1]Safevoteen.wikipedia.org

  Safevote technology was used in an official public-voting shadow-election test in Contra Costa County, California, conducted alongside the 2000 United States election. The test involved 307 voters and did not determine the official election result.

A specialist election-technology provider focused on proprietary voting systems that can support internet, offline, and hybrid elections, with emphasis in the available literature on privacy, security, auditability, and election trust.

• Electronic voting system

  Internet voting technology

  Safevote is associated with proprietary systems for conducting elections through the internet. The available material indicates use in legally binding elections and in a public shadow-election test, but does not identify a commercial product name, software architecture, deployment model, or current availability.

• Election technology

  Offline voting technology

  The company’s technology has also been used in offline voting contexts. The supplied reference does not specify whether this involved dedicated hardware, paper-supported procedures, local software, or an integration with internet-based systems.

• Election technology

  Hybrid voting technology

  Safevote has experience combining internet and offline election methods. The hybrid approach is consistent with the company’s broader positioning as a provider of election technology adaptable to different administrative and operational environments, though implementation details are not provided.

• Voting-system concept

  Witness-voting system

  The witness-voting system is discussed in a publication associated with Ed Gerck and Safevote’s electronic-voting work. The available reference identifies the publication but does not establish whether the term refers to a separately marketed product, a research design, or a component of the company’s broader technology.

1. 1Safevoteen.wikipedia.org