The Diocese of Freiburg had started planning their 2020 online election of parish councils long before the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. However, the initially planned postal voting with 1.6 million eligible voters was cancelled due to the very first lockdown. Martin Müller, pastoral advisor and managing director of the Freiburg Diocesan Council, tells us in a #customerinterview how a remarkable voter turnout was nevertheless achieved in the largest online election to date with POLYAS.

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BSI-Certificate-online-voting

On June 25, 2021, the POLYAS CORE 2.5.0 was once again certified according to the international Common Criteria standards. We took this opportunity to fact-check the frequently asked questions concerning the BSI certificate (BSI = German Federal Office for Information Security). What does the BSI certificate mean? What exactly is being certified? The basis for […]

25 years POLYAS 25 percent discount

Can you remember what you did exactly 25 years ago this summer? We sure do as we provided our first online election: 30,000 eligible voters raised their voice digitally with POLYAS in Finland in the summer of 1996. Nowadays, we count more than 500 customers and 5 million voters. We are very proud to be a pioneer for digital democracy and online elections. At the same time, we would like to say THANK YOU for supporting us on this journey and trusting in us.

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Virtual elections in parties

Postal elections are experiencing a breakthrough. The pandemic means that growing numbers of people are in favor of postal voting. However, there is an alternative: Virtual elections such as digital membership polling in parties. In this blog post, we outline the legal situation with virtual elections and the opportunities that arise for parties. Continue reading

Digitisation in Europe - How the pandemic is driving the digital world of work

The Covid-19 pandemic is turning the working world upside down. Recent weeks and months have seen radical changes to the way that work is conceived and organized in companies, associations, trade unions and other institutions. What was previously unthinkable is now a part of everyday digital working: Virtual meetings, home office, digital conferences and online polls. In this article, we explore the effects of this radical change, how big the change is, and the opportunities that come with the push for digitalization. Continue reading

virtual elections

2021 is a super election year. Elections are taking place in seven federal states and the general election is also taking place at the end of September. But how can the parties elect their candidates contact-free during a global pandemic? What are the opportunities and advantages of virtual voting for parties, and what are the challenges to overcome?

In this article, we get to the bottom of these questions and the legal basis for digital voting procedures. Continue reading

digital DCU party conference

The CDU held a fully digital party conference for the first time in January 2021. The new CDU leader, Armin Laschet, was elected by 1,001 delegates using the POLYAS Live Voting. How the German party managed to prepare its party congress within 5 weeks and the situations it had to deal with were discussed in the interview with Dr. Stefan Hennewig, the national managing director of the CDU. Continue reading

Review 2017

The year comes to an end and POLYAS looks back on a successful and exciting 2017. We introduced new features, found new customer groups and offered fully serviced elections. Read more in our year review. Continue reading

Online Election Security

Digital national elections and E-voting is the future despite recent negative press surrounding the German national elections. Read about how half measures are endangering democracy and the impact of online voting.

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Online voting in Canada: Digital Democracy

Whilst not yet in use at the federal election level, online voting in Canada has been in operation in certain elections for over a decade. In this blog post we take a look at the current online voting landscape in Canada and the likely future trend. Continue reading

Online Election Security

The controversy surrounding alleged Russian interference in the recent US presidential election has brought security in elections to the fore. In previous blogs on the topic, we’ve looked at some of the theory and practice of foreign intervention in elections. This week we turn our attention to online election security in our fourth and final post in this series. Continue reading

Digital Participation

In the previous installments of this series, we have covered some of the different forms of digital participation. Today we will be assessing the overall benefits and drawbacks of participating in a digital world.  Continue reading