At the 81st Annual Toastmasters International Convention in Orlando, Florida on August 15-18, 2012, Option Technologies Interactive (OTI) saved Toastmasters International staff many hours of tabulating election votes from paper ballots. Nearly 1,000 delegates used electronic voting keypads to cast votes.
Upon arrival at the convention, delegates authorized to cast votes registered and checked in at special OTI "Welcome Stations." Each Welcome Station was linked to a server contain the roster of convention voting delegates and the number of votes and proxy votes each delegate was authorized to cast.
As part of the Welcome Station check-in process, OTI team members scanned the barcodes on the delegates’ ID badge and linked that information to a scanned barcode on their assigned OptionFinder G3 keypad. The delegate used the keypads as wireless voting devices during the legislative sessions at the convention.
The OTI Welcome Stations were used to link wireless keypads with each individual delegate and verify the correct number of votes and proxies authorized.
The Weighted Voting function was the most important capability that the OptionPower Delegate Voting software provided to Toastmasters. Some delegates were authorized to cast more than 50 votes and proxies. Many needed to split or allocate their votes between ballot alternatives. The system allowed for this split voting. OptionPower sent a confirmation message to each keypad so that each delegate was able to verify that they successfully cast the number of ballots intended for each choice. The system also confirmed that each delegate was only able cast the proper of number votes authorized.
The OptionPower system provided speed and accuracy. Each delegate only cast the votes authorized and invalid selections were eliminated. The major plus to the Delegate Voting Module is scaleability. For Toastmasters, the ability to tabulate thousands of votes in seconds and send personalized confirming messages to each voter helped to significantly accelerate the balloting process.
To learn more information about OTI electronic voting solutions please call us at 407-872-3333.
