Election Security Questions and Answers

Have there been issues with the Voatz election platform in the past?

While there have been attempts to break in the Voatz platform, no election has been disqualified due to issues with the Voatz platform. It is a battle-tested platform that has never had a successful security breach, nor experienced any voter fraud, and every attempt to break into the system has been thwarted.

Are there any security issues we need to be worried about with Voatz?

Maintaining the highest standard of security is a priority for Voatz and the Town of Newmarket. The Voatz platform employs multiple layers of security (including malware detection and end-to-end encryption) to detect whether an operating system has been tampered with and to prevent a compromised device from submitting a ballot. 

The system undergoes regular testing both by Voatz’s own engagements and through its public bug bounty program that invites anyone including researchers to submit any security issue that they suspect. If a valid issue is found, Voatz begins immediately to implement a solution. More information can be found on the Audits page on the Voatz website.

In addition, the Town of Newmarket retained a third-party professional services firm to perform a security audit of the voting system prior to the election, ensuring that the voting process is safe, secure and maintains the secrecy of the ballot. During the voting period, audits will be performed regularly and randomly to detect any unusual activity. 

While election security must be taken very seriously, there are several levels of ongoing tests and audits in place, so that voters can be confident that their vote is secure.

Can our vote be viewed, or changed after it's been cast?

Voatz uses blockchain technology to store the final vote record on multiple redundant, distributed ledgers for the highest degrees of tamper-resistance. Each record is broken into multiple pieces that are stored separately in a highly distributed and anonymized manner. This renders “hacking” a very challenging, if not impossible, task.

Is Elections Newmarket aware of the issues raised in this article and have they been addressed? 

https://news.mit.edu/2020/voting-voatz-app-hack-issues-0213

We have been informed of the issues raised in this article and are satisfied that they do not indicate a concern for the integrity of the Newmarket election. To investigate this further, you can learn more in a summary technical analysis of the claims, prepared by Voatz and available here.

Do the ballots leave Canada?

No. All data generated by the Voatz Online system being used in Canadian elections is accessed and stored within Canada and secured against any unauthorized access in compliance with Canadian data residency regulations and GDPR.