Global Election To Acquire Spectrum Print And Mail Services, Ltd.

Business Editors

Vancouver, B.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 10, 2000

Global Election Systems Inc. (TSE:GSM.)today announced its execution of a letter of intent to acquire 100% of Spectrum Print and Mail Services, Ltd., an election products, services and technology company located in Mountlake Terrace, Washington (Seattle).

Spectrum's projected revenues, servicing only a small percentage of Spectrum's existing client base and a small percentage of Global's present client base, is estimated to be US$4 to US$5 million for 2000-2001. The combined companies' participation is expected to reach US$12 million in new contracts by the end of 2001.

The addition of Spectrum products to Global's existing product line will significantly expand Global's offerings to both existing and prospective new clients in the elections industry. Spectrum has also developed products that appeal to fast-growth industries outside Global's traditional elections sector. For example, Spectrum developed FrontEnd(TM), a database-to-distribution digital printing process for Photo Radar projects, Fortune 1000 employee benefit and investment account statements and print and mail customers.

Total consideration for the purchase is 1.6 million common shares of Global Election, carrying the requisite hold periods, and US$1.6 million payable as follows: US$600,000 upon closing and the balance payable in equal installments (US$333,333) on the anniversary date of closing over the next three years. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.

Spectrum Ltd., founded in 1992, has enjoyed profitability every year since its inception and in 1995 became the elections industry's leading innovator of products and services that add value to base tabulation systems such as Global Election Management Systems (GEMS). The Spectrum products VoteRemote(TM) and VoterNet, an Internet voting solution that uses GEMS as its tabulation method, will significantly add to Global's suite of products and are a key reason for Global's interest in acquiring Spectrum.

VoteRemote(TM), which is the election industry's first product in production to use the Internet for distributed processing, integrates jurisdictional geographic information plus voter registration data with signature capture and verification utilities. This insures the absentee voter receives the correct ballot, by mail, at the lowest possible postage rate, and the return ballots are processed at high speed, with accurate signature verification and

subsequent tabulation, all by precinct. Over the past several years Spectrum has completely automated the absentee-by-mail process for 14 Global Election customers on the west coast. To date, the VoteRemote(TM) process has been successfully used for nearly 22 million absentee ballots. During the upcoming Presidential election cycle, Spectrum's Election Product and Services Group will produce 3.4 million printed Global ballots and process 2.1 million absentee ballots using its proprietary VoteRemote(TM) technology.

Spectrum's Technology Group has been at the leading edge of applied technology for many years. In addition to VoteRemote(TM), Spectrum has developed a number of products which grew from VoteRemote(TM) and work together in a suite. Spectrum's product line includes: a 4-color printing of precinct-dependent ballots; MailWare(TM) for the standardization and certification of addresses; VoterView(TM), a voter registration database system; VoterNet, an Internet voting solution that can be offered as a voting method along with absentee-by-mail, touch screen and traditional paper ballots at the polling place - all using the same certified tabulation and reporting system; and FrontEnd(TM), a database to distribution digital printing process which allows the printing of any object, including images, seamlessly as variable data. Spectrum's Commercial Products and Services Group use FrontEnd(TM) for the British Columbia Photo Radar project, Fortune 1000 employee benefit and investment account statements, and for numerous print and mail customers. These commercial applications can be offered to a wide range of new markets for Global, nationally and internationally.

Robert J. Urosevich, President and COO of Global Election Systems said, "We are extremely pleased with the addition of proven products and services that Spectrum brings to our existing core business. Spectrum's existing technologies will also allow us to expand by providing current and prospective customers even more cost-effective solutions. In addition, this line of products will allow Global Election Systems to expand into a number of different world-wide markets, such as the British Columbia Photo Radar project using FrontEnd(TM), thereby decreasing the cyclic nature of our earnings." He noted that the acquisition will result in an expanded team of marketing and sales personnel.

Deborah Dean, Spectrum's President, said, "Our relationship with Global has been slowly and methodically developing for 2 1/2 years. We believe GEMS to be the election industry's superior tabulation system. It supports a wide variety of voting methods from paper ballots to touch screen and the Internet. We have focused our development efforts on creating value-added to GEMS and much of the success of our business has resulted from this decision." Jeff Dean, Managing Director added, "We have managed to take a labor-intensive process and automate it to the point of compressing time and reducing costs for a jurisdiction to provide an essential service to the voting public."

Global is one of the fastest growing election and vote tabulation companies in the election industry. It continues to provide leading edge technology to the election marketplace with advanced products such as the AccuVote (optical scan) Voting System, the AccuVote-TS (touch screen) Voting System, and the CMIS Voter Registration System. Global's superior solutions-based technology, the system's proven ability to deliver accurate results on a timely basis, and the Company's highly capable sales and after-sales people set it apart from its competitors. Global is dedicated to providing technological solutions to election jurisdictions.

Global Election Systems Inc. shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "GSM".

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The Securities Exchange Commission has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.