back to news archive

November 13, 2003

Delvinia’s Voter Outreach Program Increases Voter Turnout at Markham’s Advance Polls by 300%

Toronto based Delvinia Interactive Inc., announced today that their Voter Outreach Program for the Town of Markham municipal election resulted in an increased voter turnout at Advance Polls by over 300 percent. Delvinia Interactive was hired by the Town of Markham to develop and execute a sophisticated Voter Outreach Program to build awareness of the municipal election and promote Internet voting for Advance Polls. Internet voting accounted for over 70% of Advance Poll votes.

Delvinia’s Voter Outreach Program included direct mail, newspaper ads, promotional signage, community service announcements and the development of an interactive web site. The web site was customized to educate the voting population about how to get on the voters’ list, how to register to vote online and choices about voting in person or online. Unique features of the web site included an animated guided tour about how to vote, demonstrations of Internet voting and a video communicating the importance of voting in a municipal election.

“I am thrilled that we have more than tripled Advance Poll turnout since the previous election,” said Sheila Birrell, Markham Town Clerk and Returning Officer. “I strongly believe we can attribute this success to the introduction of Internet voting and the awareness generated by Delvinia’s Voter Outreach Program.”

“We designed a multi-channel communications strategy to make it easier to understand the voting process,” said Adam Froman, President, Delvinia Interactive Inc. “Markham’s introduction of Internet voting was an exciting opportunity to showcase our capabilities in building awareness of the election and educating voters about the growing number of choices they have to cast their vote.”

In addition to implementing and executing the Voter Outreach Program, Delvinia has surveyed over 5000 Markham residents who voted in person or on the Internet. Preliminary data collected from Internet voters revealed that 93 percent of respondents would be “very likely” to vote online again in a future election and 99 percent said that an interactive web site will be helpful in future elections. This unprecedented research is funded in part by the Applied Research in Interactive Media (ARIM) Program, a joint program between CANARIE Inc. and the Department of Canadian Heritage. Delvinia will share findings with The Town of Markham in order to assess the effectiveness of Internet voting for future municipal elections. Research results will be released early in 2004.

Internet voting represents the latest in “multi-channel” voting solutions offered by U.S. based Election Systems and Software (www.essvote.com) that also includes telephone, text messaging, and touch screen voting. In Markham, some voters were given the opportunity to cast votes using the latest in touch screen technology.

back to news archive