British Telecom And election.com To Enhance Internet Voting.

Business Editors

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 2, 2000

BT and election.com - the worldwide e-voting specialists - today announced they plan to work together to develop a range of electronic balloting and election services for the UK's public and private sectors, based on the Internet and emerging technologies.

BT said the aim is to bring about a revolution in the nation's voting habits by enabling the electorate to vote online without going to polling stations. The e-voting developments will form part of stepchange.gov - a major BT initiative to help the public sector achieve electronic Government goals and get UK citizens online by 2005.

John Stevens, BT's eGovernment business development manager, said: "election.com is the pre-eminent company in this field worldwide. We will work with them to bring our complementary skills to bear on the challenge of revolutionising the way people make their voices heard - whether this is a local school governors' election or a major political party ballot involving millions of voters.

"The initial focus will be the UK and developing Internet and interactive-voice response (IVR) systems that conform to appropriate UK balloting and data protection legislation. Together, we aim to make the UK a launch-pad for pan-European services provided by election.com."

election.com UK, formerly Unity Security Balloting, was first approved by the Department of Trade and Industry as independent scrutineer for trade union ballots and elections in 1989. Since then it has conducted thousands of elections ranging from those that involve less than 50 electors to those with more than one million.

For instance, the company successfully conducted last year's Arizona Democratic Party's Presidential Preference Primary, in which almost 40,000 Arizonans cast their vote on-line. This figure more than tripled the total number of votes during the 1996 Democratic Primary. And last month, in Brest, France, election.com ran the country's first government-organised online referendum - on whether the Presidential mandate should be reduced from seven years to five years.

In the UK, election.com was recently independent scrutineer for the election of UNISON's general secretary, Dave Prentis, involving 1.4 million members and has worked as independent scrutineer with the Labour Party since 1994.

"Citizens have so much choice in their lives, from how they bank, how they book their holidays to finding out about local schools for their children. It is time they had choices about how they cast their vote, and for the government to seriously address the declining turnout in local and general elections," said Anne Hock, managing director of election.com UK.

"Cost is an overwhelming factor now for any organisation running an election, and alternative ways to vote can seriously address this overhead. We are delighted to be working with BT in the development of enhanced election services in the UK and eventually across Europe. election.com is a global company and it is important for us to work with companies who can develop with us on a worldwide scale," she added.

stepchange.gov pulls together BT's experience as a leading user and supplier of Internet-based solutions and its understanding of the challenge the public sector faces - plus the knowledge of leading practitioners and researchers in the field.

BT and election.com today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a view to entering into formal contract agreement in the near future. The companies intend to collaborate on research into new applications and technology - in particular building on innovative work undertaken at BT's Advanced Communication Technology centre at Adastral Park near Ipswich.

John Stevens added: "We will be concentrating on providing multi-channel access to balloting services - using the Internet, IVR, mobile phones, kiosks, digital TV - and, of course, the post."

This relationship will build on election.com's proven pedigree as the UK's leading election scrutineer and BT's world-class information and communications skills. The crucial issue of security will be addressed using digital signatures as a key component.

For further information about BT please contact Nicola Johnson or Marit Meyer Bell at Le Fevre - on tel. [phone].

For further information about election.com, please contact Jerry Baston (020 7465 7683) or Jay Yung (020 7465 8736) at Ketchum.

Notes to editors:

1. election.com

election.com, the leading global Internet election company, provides public and private sector election services for governments, associations, non-profit organisations, labour unions, credit unions and corporations around the world. The company is committed to broadening voter participation in the democratic process and provides a cost-effective, seamless migration path from the traditional, paper-based election process to the Internet, enabling all people, whether they live in the city, country regions or abroad, greater voting access. Its leading UK customers range from the Communications Workers Union and the Graphical, Paper and Media Union to the South East Co-operative Society and British Airways European Works Council. election.com http://www.election.com has offices in London; New York; Washingston, DC; Chicago; Austin, Texas; Dublin; Geneva; Paris; Canberra, Sydney; Brisbane and Christchurch, NZ.

2. stepchange.gov

stepchange.gov is a major new initiative from BT, established to work closely with the public sector to help make eGovernment successful and available to all. Stepchange.gov is helping to put eGovernment policy into practice by jointly tackling the barriers and building practical solutions, which create new value for people. The initiative is backed up by a skilled team which understand the issues from a commercial and public sector point of view, and have experience of creating innovative solutions and supporting major projects. For more information, visit the stepchange.gov website on http://www.bt.com/stepchange/