United States, Washington, D.C. – December 6, 2016 – The world’s leading voting technology company, Smartmatic, released research today, highlighting voters’ concerns over the current state of America’s voting machines and underlining the connection between outdated technology and a lack of trust in U.S. voting systems. Conducted by the global insight and analytics consultancy Edelman Intelligence, the findings show that following a contentious presidential election, the majority of 2016 U.S. voters want to see investment in new voting systems and technology, and believe that updated technology will increase trust in elections.
Key Research Findings
- Eight in 10 voters and nearly 90 percent of poll workers believe upgrades to the nation’s voting technology will strengthen and build trust in elections.
- One in five Americans who voted in the presidential contest do not fully trust that the national election results were accurately tabulated; and one in three have concerns about the accuracy of the voting technology used at their polling place.
- 69 percent of polled voters – and nearly 80 percent of African-Americans, Hispanics and voters with a disability – said they would support an initiative or legislation that would advocate for or fund improvements to U.S. voting technology.
- 35 percent of African-American and Hispanic voters stated that the voting process at their local polling place was time-consuming and inefficient, versus 25 percent of voters overall.
- 86 percent of voters who used electronic voting machines believed them to be the most secure voting system.
Read more on Smartmatic website
![[City AM] The future of democracy must be digital](https://sgo.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/cityam_01.JPG)
London, 28 October 2015.- “This year’s General Election [UK, 2015] revealed stubbornly low voter turnout at just less than two-thirds of the eligible public with almost 20 per cent of voters opting for the suspect but convenient opportunity to vote by post (a trend that has increased at each election cycle). This should be proof enough that our system is failing our democracy”.
This is one of the reasons Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, Smartmatic’s Chairman, considers that the UK should embark on a nationwide debate to discuss digital democracy and the need to update its voting system.
In his article entitled “The future of democracy must be digital: Our voting system needs to be modernised with electronic voting” and published in CITY A.M on October 28, 2015, Malloch-Brown wonders why, when it comes to elections, technology adoption in the UK is lagging far behind “when an overwhelming majority have adopted technology to make everyday tasks so much easier”.
Members of the Lords discussed draft regulations on electoral registration and asylum support on Tuesday 27 October.
Read the entire article here.
![[Financial Times] Smartmatic – Revolutionising the ballot box](https://sgo.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/FinancialTimes_logo.png)
“Revolutionising the ballot box” is the title of a report by Financial Times Technology Editor Ravi Mattu on the rise of electronic voting and the current state of election administration in the UK.
In this video footage Antonio Mugica, CEO of Smartmatic, expressed the reasons why he advocates in favor of election technology: “We’re talking to more than fifty countries at the moment and we’re analysing their manual elections and the problems they have, and you can see this huge issues with tampering with manual elections. When you add technology to elections, you actually make them more robust.”
Having counted over 2.3 billion votes in automated elections around the world, Mugica believes technology to be the best antidote to election fraud and human error.
Graham Allen, a Member of the UK Parliament who is promoting the modernization of the UK election system, is confident that technology has the power to increase turnout and avoid voter suppression.
Referring to the current state of election administrations and politics in the UK he said: “I believe it needs a big shake up. And one of the ways you can blow some fresh air in is with electronic voting.”
Contrasting to these optimistic views on election technology, the video also examines the views of those opposing electronic voting.
“The case for election technology” is the title of an article by Smartmatic’s CEO and founder, Antonio Mugica. We invite you to read it and learn the philosophy behind the solutions we create to strengthen democracy.
The article analyses some of the longstanding arguments against the use of technology in the election process, and the responses made by experts, including the demonstrated benefits of well-designed election technology.
We invite you to read the complete article here.
Antonio Mugica y Mark Malloch-Brown anunciaron el lanzamiento de SGO, una nueva empresa construida bajo el extraordinario éxito de Smartmatic, el proveedor de tecnología de votación más importante del mundo. Mugica, fundador y CEO de Smartmatic, continuará en su mismo rol dentro de este nuevo emprendimiento. Malloch-Brown será el presidente.
"El lanzamiento de este nuevo grupo empresarial, más la llegada de Mark como presidente de la junta directiva, refleja nuestra visión de crecimiento y nuestro firme objetivo de aprovechar el talento de nuestro personal más allá del área de tecnologías electorales y consultoría", explicó Mugica. "Con Mark a bordo continuaremos haciendo inversiones importantes en nuestro negocio principal y en tecnología, pero en los próximos meses, ya como grupo SGO, impulsaremos el lanzamiento de una serie de nuevas empresas que comercializarán el fascinante trabajo que estamos haciendo en otras áreas tales como biometría, verificación de identidad en línea, voto por Internet y participación ciudadana, gobierno electrónico y control de la contaminación, así como mejoras a nuestros productos y servicios electorales fundamentales".
Desde su fundación en el año 2000, Smartmatic se ha convertido en una empresa global para contribuir con la transformación de las elecciones en todo el mundo, garantizando total integridad en soluciones electorales que van desde el registro, conteo de votos, hasta la proclamación de resultados, respaldado por una tecnología única y una reconocida metodología de gerencia de proyectos. La compañía ha participado en más elecciones que cualquiera de sus competidores; registrado y contado más de 2.300 millones de votos en los cinco continentes, desarrollando su propia tecnología innovadora, convertida hoy en estándar mundial.
Al comentar sobre su nombramiento, Malloch-Brown dijo "cuando conocí a Antonio y a su equipo identifiqué tres activos extraordinarios: un negocio electoral que puede ayudar a restaurar la fe en la democracia, pero que a pesar de ser el más grande del mundo sigue siendo muy poco conocido; una red de científicos e ingenieros que en vez de aislarse en esos grupos tradicionales que trabajan cómodamente en las universidades, hacen trabajo de campo, diseñando productos que funcionan en cualquier rincón del mundo. Y por último, una ola emocionante de soluciones con el potencial para lograr un impacto social positivo en la vida de las personas”.
Malloch-Brown fue director del Programa de Desarrollo de las Naciones Unidas (PNUD, por sus siglas en inglés) por seis años. Durante ese tiempo estableció su práctica “Democracia y Buen Gobierno” y la convirtió en la especialización líder del PNUD a escala global. "A lo largo de su carrera Mark ha insistido en que las soluciones a los desafíos de desarrollo comienzan con el empoderamiento exitoso de la gente a través del voto y la participación. No puedo imaginar a un activista más comprometido para liderar nuestra junta directiva y que nos represente a medida que avanzamos", dijo Mugica.
London UK, 25/11/2014.- Antonio Mugica and Lord Mark Malloch-Brown today announce a new venture, SGO, built on the extraordinary success of Smartmatic, the world’s leading voting technology provider. Mugica, Smartmatic’s CEO and co-founder, will continue in this role in the enlarged group. Lord Malloch-Brown will become chairman. He will be joined on SGO’s board by Sir Nigel Knowles, Global CEO of DLA Piper, renowned entrepreneur David Giampaolo and Roger Piñate, Smartmatic’s COO.
“The launch of our new group, coupled with Mark, David and Nigel’s arrival on the board, reflects our widening vision and our ambition to harness the talents of our staff outside election technologies and consulting” said Antonio Mugica. “Led by this inspiring group of individuals, we will continue to make substantial investments in our core business and technology but over the coming months, as SGO, we will be rolling out a series of new ventures built on the fascinating work we are doing in other areas such as biometrics, online identity verification, internet voting and citizen participation, e-governance and pollution control, as well as enhancements to our core election products and services.”
Since it was founded in 2000, Smartmatic has grown into a global business, transforming elections around the world by guaranteeing total integrity in electoral solutions from registration, to vote count, through to results proclamation, backed by unrivalled technology and project management. The company has been involved in more elections (over 3,500) than any of its competitors; registered and counted over 2.3 billion votes in five continents, and developed its own innovative technology that sets a worldwide standard.
Commenting on his appointment, Malloch-Brown said, “When I discovered Antonio and his team I saw three extraordinary assets: an elections business that could help restore faith in democracy but which despite being the largest in the world remains too little known; a network of software engineers and scientists who were not closeted in the typical IT clusters near comfortable university campuses but were out there in the field, designing products that work in every corner of the world; and third, an exciting wave of solutions with the potential to change people’s lives.”
Malloch-Brown was head of the UN Development Programme for six years. During that time he established its Democracy and Good Governance practice and made it UNDP’s leading global specialisation. “Throughout his career Mark has insisted that solutions to development challenges start with successfully empowering people through voting and participation. I cannot imagine a more committed campaigner to lead our Board and, together with Nigel and David, to represent us going forward” said Mugica.
