ActiveXperts and Votident provided SMS system for Haitians to locate Election Polling Station

March 30, 2011 - PRLog -- March 25, 2011, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Press Release) -- For the just completed Haitian Presidential Election, 1.3 million Haitian citizens, or 54% of the citizens who voted, utilized SMS to locate their voting centers successfully. This service was provided by Votident Elections Services utilizing  ActiveXperts SMS Messaging Server (http://www.activexperts.com/mmserver)

To use the system, citizens simply sent their identification number to the SMS short code '200' and received information instructing them where to vote in response.

"The SMS system provided the single most effective tool in enabling citizens to participate in the electoral process", according to Philippe Augustin, Director of Informatics for the Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP). "In the hours following the Fall 2010 elections there were massive demonstrations on the streets of Port-au-Prince, because citizens were unable to locate their polling station. For this election, there were very few problems, because any citizen who desired to vote could easily find out where it was they were supposed to vote using the SMS system."

Augustin also pointed out that "In comparison to previous elections, there was a high level of voter participation. The SMS service was perhaps the single biggest reason this occurred."

Funded through a grant provided to the CEP by USAID, the SMS system was promoted through a national information campaign announced on billboards, SMS messages and radio & TV announcements.

To provide a rapid response, ActiveXperts' support team worked closely with Votident to optimize server productivity. The SMS servers downloaded new messages from the Haitian phone companies every 10 seconds, resulting in a total average user response total time of 30 seconds. Three servers deployed the SMS system in order to provide load balancing and data redundancy to ensure consistency of response for the users.

 
About Votident Election Services
Votident, Inc. - provides election infrastructure support to governments around the world. Previous projects include providing support for the 2009 Haitian legislative elections, emergency SMS assistance for the 2010 Haitian earthquake, hardware support for the Dominican Republic presidential election and results reporting software for the El Salvador presidential election. Votident services include, Voter Registration Solutions, Handheld Biometric Identification Devices, Ballot Sheet OCR Processing and Quick-Count Results Reporting Systems For more information, Contact David Wade, Votident CEO at dwade@votident.com, +1-202-460-5054. For Media Inquiries Contact Kristen Walton at kpwalton@votident.com
Website: http://www.votident.com

About ActiveXperts Software
ActiveXperts Software B.V. - ActiveXperts - ActiveXperts is a leading provider of Windows networking and communication software. Founded in 2000, ActiveXperts support more than 10,000 customers worldwide. Its most widely known products are the ActiveXperts Network Monitor and ActiveXperts SMS Messaging Server. ActiveXperts sells its software products worldwide through a network of resellers and online through the internet and provides software development and consulting services to companies all over the world.
Website: http://www.activexperts.com