Voatz

Market position

Voatz is among the youngest entrants in an election technology market dominated by longer-established vendors, and has become the best-known mobile voting application in the United States. It describes itself as the world's first BMM certified election system and an ISO/IEC 27001 certified elections company, and says it was the first elections company to launch a public bug bounty program.

Voatz distinguishes its approach from conventional internet voting on a PC by restricting the app to recent smartphones with hardware security and biometric capabilities, deleting personally identifiable information after verification, storing votes on a permissioned blockchain, producing a tabulatable paper ballot at the jurisdiction and issuing voter receipts that support full post-election audits.

Technology

The platform combines hardware-based smartphone security (secure storage of private keys), remote identity verification via government-issued photo ID, fingerprint and facial recognition biometrics, end-to-end encryption and a permissioned blockchain for vote records. Each submission generates a paper ballot for tabulation and an anonymized, digitally signed receipt, enabling three-point audits by the voter, the election official and volunteer citizen auditors. A hardened browser-based application serves as a backup for unsupported devices.

Go-to-market

Voatz engages election officials directly through phone consultations and business development outreach, then scopes deployments to a jurisdiction's election type and needs. Adoption has largely proceeded through pilot programs with jurisdictions and parties, with announcements typically made by the relevant jurisdiction. The company also publishes research, whitepapers, security audits, a bug bounty program and a public fact-correction page.

Government election jurisdictions (state, county and municipal), political parties, conventions and caucuses, universities and student governments, labor unions, churches, professional associations and nonprofits. Voter groups targeted include overseas citizens, deployed military personnel, first responders and voters with disabilities.

Geography

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with elections conducted in seven countries; named deployments include West Virginia, Denver (Colorado), Utah County (Utah), Massachusetts town meetings, Ontario (Canada) and Mexico.

History

The idea originated with a 2014 SXSW hackathon win, and the founders began work on Voatz in 2015; the platform has been used by voters since June 2016. Early deployments covered universities, labor unions, state political parties, church groups, nonprofits and Massachusetts town meeting and participatory budget voting. Voatz graduated from the 2017 Techstars and MassChallenge accelerator programs in Boston, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Medici Ventures in January 2018, and ran pilots in West Virginia during the 2018 midterms and in Denver for the 2019 municipal election. A $7 million Series A co-led by Medici Ventures and Techstars followed in June 2019, with Techstars partner Cody Simms joining the board. The company reports IEEE-published research in November 2024, a BMM-certified election system as of September 2023 and ISO/IEC 27001 certification last renewed in November 2025.

Risks & controversies

Voatz's mobile voting approach has drawn sustained criticism from security experts, including a Vanity Fair piece in which researchers called the system a bad idea and warned that online voting needs a vetting process. The company maintains a public 'Check the Facts' page rebutting claims that it seeks to replace all voting with internet voting, that there is no paper trail, and that votes cannot be audited. It also disputes reporting, including by CNN, that it targeted University of Michigan student researchers during the 2018 West Virginia election, stating that it reported a failed breach attempt to its client, the West Virginia Secretary of State's Office, and that West Virginia officials independently involved the US Attorney's Office. The company states it has not sued and has not been sued by anyone.","competitors":"