Gessler announces grant for Denver iPad voting pilot project

Project a collaborative effort to provide greater access to elections

Denver, April 30, 2012 - Voting? There’s an app for that! Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler announced today a grant award for a Denver County pilot project to use iPads for voting. Gessler approved the award from Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds from the Secretary of State’s office.

To illustrate her ongoing commitment to making the voting process accessible to as many people as possible, Denver Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson applied for the HAVA grant of $12,900 to use iPads to ease the voting process for voters living in group residential facilities.

“It’s important that we embrace new technologies that help us foster civic participation in our elections,” Gessler said. “This grant shows our partnership to provide all Coloradans with greater access to elections.”

“The iPads will be used as a ballot marking device,” Johnson said. “Elderly voters and voters with disabilities who are in residential facilities will be able to increase the font size of the ballot or hear an audio ballot if they are visually impaired and then have their votes printed onto a paper ballot.”

The grant will fund the purchase of seven iPads, seven portable printers, seven keyboards and the services of EveryOne Counts—the software vendor that Colorado will be using statewide to make voting easier for military and overseas voters. Denver also successfully partnered with EveryOne Counts on a pilot project that allowed military and overseas voters to vote online in the 2011 Municipal Elections.

These mobile polling stations will be available as early as the June 26 Primary and will operate much like a traditional polling place, only smaller. The iPads will also have the latest voter roll download to ensure each voter receives his or her ballot style. Denver is the first Colorado county to deploy this kind of technology.