Australian Election Company Voting Services

The Australian Election Company is responsible for the organization of elections, ballots, plebiscites, and referendums using safe, "state of the art" technology for online voting.

Voting online paves the way for new opportunities and provides a one-of-a-kind experience for those participating in the electoral process. The goal of implementing online voting is to make voting more convenient and accessible for voters, to increase the reliability and safety of the voting process, and to enable more timely reporting of election or ballot results. When there are a significant number of eligible voters, such as more than 1,500, voting online is the most convenient option.

The Many Benefits of Voting Online

• Discretion and safety are of utmost importance.
• Voters will have improved access to the voting process.
• Effortless operation and a low learning curve
• An instantaneous tabulation of the Results
• Compared to voting by mail, voting in person, or voting at a polling booth, there are cost savings.

Safety and Confidentiality

The use of "state of the art" online voting software, along with initiatives to ensure the security and integrity of election and balloting processes, imposes security and integrity requirements on the voting process. We are going to design the voting website, and then implement it onto our secure server, which will also store the database of eligible voters. When an Election or Ballot project is finished, this database is deleted from the server.

To ensure that the process is carried out in a secure manner, it is necessary for voters to provide authentication information before being granted access to the Online Voting Ballot screens.

Comparatively to voting at a polling booth or sending ballots in the mail, the level of security provided by online voting for general elections and ballots is significantly higher. Various levels of voter authentication may be used, depending not only on the information that is accessible through an organization's voter database but also on the level of security that is required. Clearly, the level of security will increase proportionately with the number of authentication steps taken.

In most cases, two or even three different levels of authentication will be used. For instance, in the context of online voting for a Board of Directors' Election, the use of a Member Number in conjunction with a secret Password that has been specifically allotted to the user or a Personal Identification Number (PIN) might be appropriate.

In a similar vein, an Employee Number in conjunction with a one-of-a-kind Password or Personal Identification Number is frequently utilized for the process of voting on a Collective Agreement Ballot.

Voting online also serves as a deterrent for individuals who might attempt to vote more than once. After an eligible voter successfully authenticates their identity by quoting their Password or Personal Identification Number and casts their vote, that voter's Password is considered "consumed," meaning it can no longer be used for any other purpose, and the voter is prevented from casting additional votes. It is impossible for voters to cast more than one ballot using their Password.

Voting access is registered on the voter database from both voting mediums in situations where different voting mediums might be used for the same ballot or election. For example, postal voting might be conducted in conjunction with online voting. In this scenario, a voter would not be able to cast a ballot using both postal voting and online voting.

Every vote cast by a voter is kept private. When the voter confirms their vote selection(s), the Online Voting system "consumes" the Password/Personal Identification Number (PIN) and "marks" the Voter Roll (database), to indicate that the user has voted. This is done to prevent unauthorized access to the voter's vote selection(s). The capability of the system allows for the simultaneous storage of the actual vote details in a separate database; this ensures that the voter can only cast their ballot once and that their vote is anonymous, as the vote can no longer be associated with their details on the Voter Roll. [Case in point:]

By allowing eligible voters to cast their ballots from any Internet- or online-enabled computer in any part of the world, online voting significantly increases the accessibility of the electoral process for voters. This could be done from the comfort of their own home, their place of employment, an internet or online kiosk, inside of a public library, or even while they are aboard a cruise ship. In addition, you do not need any specialized software or browsers to use it.

Online voting also expands participation opportunities for voters who might be geographically separated from traditional polling places, voters who might be traveling abroad, voters who might have physical disabilities or who might be ill or elderly, and voters with limited access to a traditional voting machine. as well as individuals whose religious convictions may prevent them from being present at polling stations during the standard voting hours and days.

The key to success in online voting is keeping things straightforward. The only thing a voter needs to do to gain access to the ballot screen (or screens) is log in to the secure voting website that is hosted on our election server, enter their authentication details (which typically consist of a Member or Employee Number and a Password/PIN), and then click the "Login" button.

A voter could access the candidate promotional statements (including photographs, if permissible under the relevant governance requirements) online, simply by "clicking" on the relevant candidate's name if candidate or similar promotional statements are a feature of your Elections or Ballots. This is the case if candidate or similar promotional statements are a feature of your Elections or Ballots.

When a voter "clicks" inside a box beside their chosen candidate (or candidates), or in the case of a Collective Agreement Employee Ballot, when a voter "clicks" in either the "YES" or "NO" box, a screen will appear confirming the voter's selection(s). Once a voter makes their selections, a screen will appear confirming the voter's selection(s). At this point, a voter has the option of either confirming and submitting their selection(s) by simply looking at the "Confirmation Screen" or making changes to their ballot by "clicking" on the "Return" button. Both of these options are available to the voter. Following the successful casting and submission of their ballot, the voter is greeted with a "Thank You" screen, which signifies the conclusion of the voting process.

The voter has the distinct advantage of being able to visualize every step of the voting process when using the Online Voting system, in addition to having the flexibility and capacity to amend their vote prior to its final submission. Additionally, the voter has the ability to print out a confirmation that their vote has been successfully cast.

Online voting allows for a speedy tally of the results, which is a distinguishing feature of the format. In point of fact, the results of the election or ballot are theoretically available instantly. There is no need to wait for the completion of potentially inaccurate manual counts, or for the data keying or electronic scanning of ballots. The Results are made available to clients as soon as our regular procedures for conducting internal quality assurance checks are finished.

And if there are complicated voting systems in play, such as different types of preferential voting or "first past the post" voting systems, then our proprietary software, which is integrated with the Online Voting system, will apply those voting systems to deliver absolutely accurate count outcomes and output reports, and it will do so virtually instantaneously.

When compared with the more conventional Attendance (Polling Booth) and/or Postal Voting methods, Online Voting results in significant cost savings when implemented. When voting is done in person, there are obviously significant infrastructure costs involved. These costs include things like the provision of staff, the hiring of polling premises and equipment, the costs of printing ballot papers, the costs of carrying out the counting of votes, and a variety of other expenses.

When voting is done through the mail, there are significant costs associated with the envelopes, ballot papers, and other voting materials, as well as postage expenses, return ballot processing costs, and again count costs.

When it comes to Online Voting, on the other hand, once all of the necessary web screens have been developed, there are essentially very few other costs. We are aware that Internet voting is more effective than more conventional methods, and we are confident that this will result in a significant reduction in the costs associated with your election or ballot.