What Is Voting Software?

Voting software is an incredible technology tool that allow users to conduct polls online in a safe and secure manner. Right from creating candidates’ profiles to registering voters online and counting votes and publishing results, voting software is designed to cater to each aspect of the election process.

It is a great technology to improve accessibility for all the disabled voters out there. By this, the software supports remote polling, thus allowing people to cast their ballot from any location. It is a great relief for all those who couldn’t participate in traditional paper ballots or in large public gatherings.

Advantages of Using Voting Software

Some of the top benefits of voting software are as follows:

1. Fewer errors: As the election process gets automated, online voting software helps in getting rid of paper-based documents and manual counting ballot papers. This in turn leads to fewer errors such as miscounting of votes, misplacement of files and incorrect voter details.
2. Secure voting: Top voting software comes with state-of-the-art security. The best ones guarantee a secure and safe network to protect the entire election process right from nominations to recording of votes. Further, a secret ballot is used to maintain the secrecy of ballots that help ensure the voting process complies with safety requirements.
3. Better efficiency: Voting management software reduces the cost of paying staff and other paper related costs. And as votes are counted electronically, it saves the time and cost of the organizers who would otherwise have been required to manage physical elections.
4. Easy accessibility: Online voting platform & election software is accessible and simple to use. It can be accessed across a variety of devices and makes the entire voting process as simple as the tap of a button.

Features That Make a Great Voting Software

Check out some of the top features every online voting software should have:

1. Ballot management: This is one of the most critical features of a voting software system. Through ballot management, one can create and customize ballots in terms of their propositions and measures.
2. Voter management: A reputable voting management software registers voters and manages their registration details to check for voting eligibility.
3. Election management: A reputable online voting system regulates and manages the entire election process online – right from registering candidates to declaring results.
4. Candidate profiles: It’s essential that your online voting software helps create candidate profiles with their name, address, educational qualification among other things.
5. Online voting: A secure election voting system even authenticates a voter’s identity through methods such as OTPs and passwords. This helps check their eligibility and allows them to cast their vote online.
6. Nominations: The best voting software will allow candidates to nominate themselves or get represented and endorsed by others.
7. Ranked choice voting: Along with nominations, a secure online voting platform allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference.
8. Turnout tracking – Increased turnout is one of the many features of an online voting system. These online systems let you track the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot on election day.
9. Voter notifications – Voting management software sends notifications to remind voters about registration deadlines, date of election and other important updates related to the election day.

Planning to Buying Voting Software? Factors to Consider

Now, let’s discuss a few key factors you must keep in mind when choosing voting software.

1. Social media integration: Social media platforms have been a game changer for elections. People use them to keep track of events and follow and engage with their favorite candidates. It is crucial that the voting software you choose integrate well with popular social media sites. This will allow you to create voter awareness or host online polls, tag people, and share opinion that matters.
2. Voter authentication: Goes without saying, voter authentication is a key factor to consider when buying voting software. It can help avoid manipulation such as duplicate voting, absentee ballots, fraudulent petition and more. Therefore, ensure that the online voting system you choose has built-in functions to authenticate voters via passwords or biometrics.
3. Accessibility across platforms: Accessibility across devices is another important factor to consider when choosing voting software. This is because it can help increase voter turnout by providing them the comfort to vote from their home.

What's Driving the Demand for Voting Software?

Voting management software handles a range of functions like voter registration, vote counting and so on. These tools are standalone solutions covering all the aspects of the election process. Here are the two top factors driving the demand for an online voting system.

Increasing use of mobile apps in election process

Mobility solutions have entered every space and election process is no different. Mobile voting apps are gaining popularity at a rapid pace as they improve accessibility for people even in remote locations. Such apps use biometric identification or facial recognition to verify voters and check their voting eligibility. The U.S and Estonia are among the few countries that have implemented mobile apps for election and several other countries are expected to join the trend.

Blockchain technology to ensure security of votes

Blockchain technology plays a crucial role in improving election transparency. The technology can be used to record, and report votes and eliminate any possible chances of voting frauds or hacks. A few online voting platforms have already introduced blockchain technology in their products and others are expected to follow the trend in the coming future to make voting process more secure.