It all goes back to the George Bush vs Al Gore Election of 2000, which was an extremely controversial election. Ernest’s father was a government contractor and his family was living overseas at the time. His only option was to cast his ballot via the postal mail. On Election Night, as reports of election results came rolling in, the outcome became highly contested and litigation ensued. When the supreme court ultimately ruled to stop a recount taking place in Florida, it made Ernest question what really happened behind the scenes, starting with whether or not his ballot was even counted, and everything about the United States government thereafter. At the age of 18, this was the first election he was allowed to participate in, and his faith in the democratic process was shaken to the core. It was at this moment he identified the problem (the need for a secure end-to-end verifiable voting system to make elections honest/transparent); however, he had no clue how to go about solving it at the time.

Fast forward to 2014, when Ernest learned about the advantages of blockchain technology and how it could be leveraged to develop a secure end-to-end verifiable voting system, we pivoted and this initiative became the sole focus of Follow My Vote’s business operations.

Upon making our plans public, the Pirate Party of Norway took notice, among many others.

The video was recorded in 2015 when Ernest was invited overseas to attend a national summit meeting for the Pirate Party of Norway, where he introduced Follow My Vote’s designs for a secure end-to-end verifiable blockchain-based voting system to Pirate Party members and citizens of Norway. And, the presentation couldn’t have been more well received.

20 years later and the story of US elections has not changed. The 2020 presidential election was just as controversial as the Bush vs Gore election. Donald Trump and Joseph Biden found themselves in an eerily similar position. While the reported results were not as close as the 2000 election, the contest was questioned just as much. Many people simply refused to acknowledge and believe the outcome was true. Even the Trump campaign would not concede to the loss and filed a total of 63 lawsuits in an attempt to overturn the results. Many people are still outraged over the conclusion and accusations have come from both sides. 

“The time has come to solve this problem, once and for all. The technology needed to bring forth this type of solution is within reach. And, the world needs it now more than ever.”

Adam Ernest – Co-Founder and CEO at Follow My Vote

When will we see honest and fair elections? Follow My Vote intends to make secure verifiable mobile blockchain-based voting a reality, so there will be nothing to contest. By using a distributed ledger, all participants will be able to verify the election results themselves and faith will be restored.

If you feel elections can be hosted in a modern and secure way like we do, please join our movement! You can sign up for our supporters list and stay updated on our efforts and progress. We also accept donations (Follow My Vote is a registered public benefit corporation) and we are currently recruiting development help through our Dev Challenge. 

Questions about our technology and software can be answered on our FAQ page and via our contact form. 

The post Follow My Vote CEO’s Raison D’être appeared first on Follow My Vote.

The non-partisan political conference took place in Pasadena, California, over June 25 and 26. Many well known politicians, tv hosts, and political thought leaders attended. Some of the most notable were Gov. Gary Johnson, Gov. Sarah Palin, Cenk Uygur, James Carville, John McAfee, Ann Coulter, and Ben Shapiro. See the full line up on politicon.com

Panel: Are U.S. Elections Rigged?

Follow My Vote CEO, Adam Ernest, participated in a panel hosted by the Free and Equal Elections foundation. Participants debated paper ballots vs. online voting, money in politics, gerrymandering, and alternative voting methods.

The room was packed to the gills. When the panel actually ended (due to time constraints), there were still people waiting to ask questions.

During the panel, Ernest educated attendees on the technology Follow My Vote uses to build secure and verifiable online voting software. He said:

“Blockchain technology has the ability to literally root out any potential for corruption in elections.

We are on a panel right now talking about if elections are rigged. I think an even better question would be: with the current processes and systems that are in place to conduct voting, the way we conduct voting today, is there a potential for things to be corrupted? And the answer to that question, in my opinion, would be yes.”

– Adam Ernest, Follow My Vote CEO.

Watch the video of the panel.

Ernest went on to discuss procedural security which is the security controls needed to prevent fraud and inaccuracy. This involves following rules or certain steps to mitigate identified risks. Anytime humans are involved in counting votes, registering people, giving people ballots, procedural security is necessary.

“We no longer have to rely on procedural security to ensure that there is security within our elections. Using blockchain technology, we can literally develop an end-to-end verifiable voting system. If we have the opportunity to leverage technology to make that a reality, the question is, why not?”

The panel not only discussed ending paper ballots, but also ending paper voting guides. Did you know California spends $12-14 million dollars every election cycle on paper voting guides, which are mailed to 17 million registered voters?

Listeners of the panel heard from Cenk Uygur, of The Young Turks. Cenk had valuable input on the ways the mainstream media responds and reports on rigged elections. He also shared interesting information on instances like Rhode Island shutting down 2/3 of their ballot boxes, which could be considered a form of election rigging.

Frank Atwood, of Approval Voting shared information on why approval voting should be used. Approval voting is a method of voting that gives 3rd party candidates a chance and produces a winner that the majority of voters support. Follow My Vote plans to demonstrate approval voting in the Parallel Election of 2016!

Moderators: 

Christina Tobin,  Founder and Chair of the Free and Equal Elections Foundation

Cenk Uygur, Main host and co-founder of The Young Turks

Participants: 

Adam Ernest, CEO of Follow My Vote

Frank Atwood, Approval Voting

Hunter Scarborough, Voter App (matchmaking for politics)

Nate Kaplan of SeePolitical

Kimberley Abels of HeadCount.

Exhibiting

The Follow My Vote Exhibitor booth was well received at Politicon! People were excited to hear that verifiable voting is in the near future.

We answered lots of questions regarding how our system works and how we maintain security.

Out of all the discussion and talking, the most resounding thing people were excited about was our Parallel Election. We are going to demonstrate our voting technology alongside the 2016 U.S Presidential Election.

We also have a Kickstarter to help fund the Parallel Election! You can help elections become more honest and transparent!

See all of our pictures from Politicon on Facebook!

About the author: Will Long is the Marketing Manager of Follow My Vote.

The post Yes, Politicon Was Amazing! appeared first on Follow My Vote.

RBTC: What are some of the regional resources that have contributed to your success?
Adam: NuSpark, a startup space located in Blacksburg dedicated to helping aspiring entrepreneurs turn ideas into businesses, was truly instrumental to our success at Follow My Vote. They gave us dedicated office space and a place to call home when we needed it most.

RBTC: What makes the Roanoke-Blacksburg region such a good fit for your company?
Adam: Upon graduating from Virginia Tech, it had always been my dream to return to Blacksburg and start a business, allowing me to recruit top talent from my alma mater and give back to the surrounding community in any way that I can.

RBTC: If you could give one piece of advice to a fellow entrepreneur, what would it be?
Adam: Be a visionary leader. Be passionate about what you do and surround yourself with people that share your passion and belief in your vision for the future of your business.

RBTC: What is one lesson you have learned over time that has made an impact on your business’ day-to-day operations?
Adam: A good manager should focus on what’s really important. I have found it best to focus less on what time your employees get to work in the morning and more on whether or not they get the job done before they leave the office for the night.

RBTC: How would you like to see the Roanoke-Blacksburg region develop over the next 5 years?
Adam: I think we all should strive to support local businesses, as opposed to large corporations, even if it is not always most cost effective to do so. What I would really like to see is for us to become much more of a self-sustaining community, especially when it comes to energy and food production.

We would like to thank the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council for setting up the interview!

About Follow My Vote: A company focused on providing honest elections, Follow My Vote develops end-2-end verifiable voting through the use of blockchain technology.

About the author: David Brock is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote.

The post Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council Interviews Adam Ernest, CEO of Follow My Vote appeared first on Follow My Vote.

Within minutes of hitting the conference floor, we had opportunity to connect with a plethora of open-minded people with varying religious beliefs, economic theories, and political ideologies. Needless to say, we had some intriguing conversations with some fascinating people.

We decided to attend Freedom Fest for the first time this year with a goal of informing as many people as possible about Follow My Vote and the exciting new project that we are working on, which is the development of an online open-source voting system secured with revolutionary blockchain technology powered by BitShares.

The typical reaction we received, when speaking about bringing our solution to the world, was… “FINALLY!”

It seems that, now more than ever, people are opening up to the idea of involving advanced technology in democratic process here in the United States.

When learning of our project, many conference-goers came to the realization that, in this day and age, we shop online, we bank online, we file our taxes online, we apply for loans online, and much more. We essentially do everything online these days except for voting, leading many of these same conference-goers to ask rhetorically, “Yeah, why don’t we vote online!?”

As our Founder and CEO explains in a recent podcast, which was recorded live with SHR Media while at Freedom Fest 2015, the reason we don’t vote online just yet is that the technological solution to host elections online in a secure way simply didn’t exist before 2009.

“What is this new advanced technology that you speak of?” you ask.

It’s called Blockchain Technology…

It just so happened that, at Freedom Fest 2015, conference-goers had the opportunity to experience the world premiere of a powerful film entitled “BITCOIN: THE END OF MONEY AS WE KNOW IT”, which talks about blockchain technology and how it was introduced to the world by Satoshi Nakamoto as the underlying technology behind Bitcoin. There were many films featured during Freedom Fest 2015, but this one received the most interest by far, as there wasn’t an empty seat in the house. In fact, many people chose to stand in the aisle (before getting yelled at by those in the seats) or in the back of the cinema, if only to catch a mere glimpse of the show.

From there, Freedom Fest 2015 was abuzz about Bitcoin and the many potential use cases of blockchain technology. As stated recently in Freedom Mag, “It turns out Bitcoin might not be the star of its own story—that it’s the underpinning technology, known as the blockchain, that has the real revolutionary potential.” This notion is further supported later on in the article; as it goes on to say that “Many believe that, beyond changing the institution-dominated shape of modern finance, the blockchain is a platform for myriad as-yet-unthought-of innovations.”

Within the same article, Follow My Vote was actually recognized for thinking of using the blockchain to enhance the way we vote and for leading a movement behind the concept to do so. This being the case, we took full advantage of spreading the word throughout the rest of the week at Freedom Fest 2015. In doing so, we met with a myriad of organizations, think tanks, entrepreneurs, and investors, many of which expressed interest in getting involved in our project.

For Follow My Vote, the highlights of Freedom Fest 2015 were centered on our interactions with the President and First Lady of the Free Republic of Liberland. Liberland is a self-proclaimed micronation, which claimed a parcel of land (7 km²) on the western bank of the Danube River between Croatia and Serbia, declaring their sovereignty as of April 13^th, 2015. The Liberland motto is “live and let live.” Follow My Vote plans to continue conversations with Liberland in hopes to one day provide a transparent, blockchain based voting solution to their government and its citizens.

In the meantime, feel free to check out all of the pictures below, which we took during Freedom Fest 2015:

See our Facebook Album for even more pictures!

The post Follow My Vote At Freedom Fest 2015 appeared first on Follow My Vote.

The guys at Sack Heads Radio did an excellent job during the radio bit at freedom fest. They asked all the questions listeners would want to hear about Follow My Vote and our campaign for transparent and provably honest online voting. Check out the recording below and be sure to see the pictures from the live action.

We would like to thank Sack Heads Radio for featuring Adam Ernest and Follow My Vote on the air. Without radio and media publications like Sack Heads Radio we would not be able to spread the word about our company and mission. SHR Media is a conservative media website. Follow My Vote is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse any parties or their affiliates. However we are happy to discuss internet voting and our mission with any media publication.

About the author: Will Long is the Marketing Manager of Follow My Vote.

The post Adam Ernest Discusses The Future Of Voting On Sack Heads Radio At Freedom Fest 2015. appeared first on Follow My Vote.