Sheffield Elections through the kiosks. Smartcard used in Sheffield Elections. | May 2003 May 2003 Sheffield Election was probably the largest and most significant introduction of smart cards in the world, certainly in Great Britain: 174000 to include half of the cities electorate. This figure has subsequently risen to 450.000.
The city is progressing with multiple uses for smart cards, which provide concrete security for elections, but also have everyday uses also.
There are many advantages for voters due to operating a digital election:
- Lengthens the voting window and is more convenient.
- Vote for a week not just on the Election Day.
- Vote at Shopping Malls, Supermarkets, Public buildings etc and in the street!
The E Vote application on the kiosks was simply introduced onto the existing kiosk network application. Being a touchscreen application, it provides a high usability factor.
The advantage of using an existing network is obvious: it is already accepted, many people are already familiar with it. The voting application is not just used once a year for voting, it is a 24 hour seven days a week public service for a large range of uses.
Our Partners in the e-Vote consortium:
- Accenture Election Services (Election.com)
- British Telecom - BT Exact
- Rubberductions
The Touchscreen kiosks have been very successful in the two elections 2002/3, being as popular as telephone voting. Evoting via the kiosks increased the voter turnout by a small percentage, with kiosk users having a significant affect upon user satisfaction. May 2002 Live website based digital voting to elect members of the City Council was pioneered in May 2002.
The election took place in three of the city Electoral Wards, and to ensure total vote security, Smart Cards where issued to all eligible voters.
Not only was this the first live web based election, it was also the first ever using publicly distributed Smart Cards for secure identification of the voters. |
Sheffield Local Elections on Public DataWeb kiosks
