WSLS 10 News Story!
To kick off 2015 in the coolest way possible, Follow My Vote along with NuSpark (A Blacksburg entrepreneurship space) received some attention from the press. WSLS 10 is a South West Virginia news station with a well built reputation. We were ecstatic to hear they wanted to cover our endeavors in the online voting industry. Investigative reporter Aaron Martin was fascinated by our revolutionary voting platform and was a pleasure to work with. It is truly great to work with other professionals that immediately understand our mission to bring voting into the future in regards to both technology and security. If we are successful with our online voting platform we will be able to streamline the voting process and make it extremely convenient to vote. Voter Turnout will go through the roof! WSLS 10 Published Blacksburg startup looks to bring elections online and produced a fantastic story on their evening news segment.
By Aaron Martin, Investigative Reporter
Posted: Jan 07, 2015 5:20 PM EST
BLACKSBURG (WSLS 10) – Nobody likes waiting in line, especially when it comes to casting your ballot in an election.
Now a Blacksburg startup has the solution.
Adam Ernest hopes his company Follow My Vote will be the future of elections and he’s working to make it a reality.
“We really do believe that online elections are inevitable,” he said. “We want to be the company that helps other people get there.”
The goal is to get people voting from their computer using a webcam. You take a picture of yourself and then a picture of the front and back of your license.
Ernest walked us through the process, which not only allows you to vote but to track that vote as it’s counted.
He said the software is also safe.
Follow My Vote uses a decentralized security system, meaning data is stored in several different locations.
It’s different than companies like Sony and Target, which centralized its data leading to the high profile hacks.
The work of Follow My Vote is now influencing others in the New River Valley.
They grew into a company at NuSpark, a resource that helps startups go from an idea to a business.
“The success of Follow My Vote gives hope not only to the teams here to make their dreams become reality but to other individuals who haven’t even started down that path,” said Sherry Walker, the Director of NuSpark.
After a successful presentation in Sacramento, California last month, the company is now working to find states and communities interested in online voting.
“We’re in the right place at the right time and we’ve developed the solution that can really get us to honest elections,” Ernest said.
He hopes that could come as early as 2016.
