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Category: Company News

CAQ Leadership Election Successfully Conducted with Simply Voting

Posted on by Bret Scofield

Montreal, Canada – May 6th, 2026 – Simply Voting Inc., a leading provider of secure online voting solutions, is proud to announce the successful completion of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) leadership election using its voting platform.

A Secure and Engaging Democratic Process

From April 7 to April 12, 2026, members of the CAQ participated in a leadership vote to select a successor to François Legault, who announced his resignation in January.

The election saw strong engagement from party members:

  • 15,833 members voted, representing 77% turnout
  • Total eligible members: 20,500
  • Voting officially concluded on April 12, 2026, at 15:00

This high level of participation reflects both the importance of the leadership transition and the accessibility of the online voting system.

Trusted Technology Delivering Reliable Results

The election resulted in a decisive victory for Christine Fréchette, who secured 57.9% of the vote. As the CAQ is presently the governing party, Ms. Fréchette now becomes Prime Minister of Quebec. It was the party’s first ever leadership race.

Members were provided the choice of internet voting or telephone voting, enhancing overall accessibility.

To ensure a smooth voting experience, the online voting platform offered a dedicated help desk, enabling authorized personnel to assist voters encountering difficulties while maintaining strict safeguards to protect the integrity of the election.

The online voting platform provided by Simply Voting ensured the highest standards of electoral integrity through:

  • Strong encryption
  • Anonymous electronic ballots
  • Instant and accurate tabulation of results

CAQ emphasized the secured and user-friendly experience of Simply Voting’s online voting system and service. “Simply Voting’s expertise ensured the success of the CAQ leadership campaign by combining flawless technological security with a highly simple and accessible voting experience for all our members” said Denis Jr. Joannette, CAQ’s Director of Research and Development.

The online voting system enabled party members from across the country to participate securely, reinforcing confidence in the democratic process.

About the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ)

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) is the current governing party in Quebec and has been in power since 2018. Focused on economic development, identity, and public service reform, the party plays a central role in shaping the province’s political landscape.

Enhanced Telephone Voting for Secure and Scalable Elections

Posted on by Bret Scofield

We are pleased to announce an upgrade to our telephone voting solution, further enhancing accessibility, reliability, and security for our clients and voters.

As you may know, Simply Voting offers a comprehensive range of election solutions, including online voting, paper ballots, and telephone voting, to ensure all your election needs are met. Our telephone voting system enables voters to cast their ballots through audio ballots, submitted securely using a touch-tone keypad, making it an essential option for accessible and inclusive elections.

What’s Changed?

Simply Voting now uses Twilio as the interactive voice interface layered on top of our online voting system.

Twilio is a robust and leading cloud communications platform that adheres to internationally recognized security standards such as ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II, ensuring strong protections for partners like Simply Voting.

What Are the Benefits?

  • More modern, more secure, greater capacity
    The upgrade focuses on the underlying communications infrastructure, delivering improved security and scalability.
  • Faster setup and turnaround
    Telephone ballots are easier and quicker to configure, reducing the lead time required to set up your election.
  • Easier audio updates
    Audio files can be adjusted quickly, making pronunciation corrections and other updates faster and more efficient.

A Stronger, More Reliable Voting Experience

This upgrade strengthens service continuity and reinforces trust for our clients. It delivers a smooth, secure, and scalable telephone voting experience that adapts effortlessly to demand ensuring every voter can cast their ballot without interruption, even during peak periods while maintaining the highest standards of data protection.

Looking for an accessible telephone voting option for your election?
Contact us to discuss your needs or read more about it here.



Giving Back to the Community in 2025

Posted on by Bret Scofield

We’re thrilled to announce our corporate volunteering initiative for 2025! This year, we partnered with Sun Youth for the second time, a dedicated charity that provides a wide range of emergency and community services. Simply Voting also offered Sun Youth a $15,000 donation.

This year, Simply Voting also decided to support DESTA Black Youth Network, a Non-Profit organization that supports Black youth aged 18 to 35 in reaching their educational, employability, and entrepreneurial goals with a $15,000 donation.

The Volunteering Activity

On December 10th, 2025, our team gathered at the Sun Youth warehouse to help where needed. Our team bagged oranges from 50kg sacks into smaller portions so they could be distributed to families in need.

These tasks are essential to ensuring that Sun Youth’s programs run smoothly and that they can continue making a positive impact on those in need.

That day offered a valuable opportunity for our team to make a positive impact, support a worthy cause, and connect more closely with one another.

Thank you to everyone who participated and generously shared their time and energy to help make this initiative a success. Together, we made a meaningful impact and reinforced our commitment to our community.

We look forward to our next opportunity to give back!

Volunteering Activity 4
Volunteering Activity 2025
Volunteering Activity 3
Volunteering Activity2

2025 Holiday Support Hours Schedule

Posted on by Bret Scofield

Please note that our office will be closed from December 22, 2025 through January 2, 2026. Our normal hours will resume on Monday, January 5, 2026.

Skeleton staff will still be available to support our customers. If you require emergency support during this time, please log into the Election Manager, click on the Help button in the bottom right corner of the page, and set the priority to “urgent”. One of our team members will follow up with you promptly.

As this year comes to a close, we would like to thank all our clients and partners for your continued trust and support throughout the year. We value the opportunity to continue delivering a secure, reliable, and accessible online voting system for your elections year after year. Your confidence in Simply Voting inspires us to keep improving security and reliability, while developing new features to make user and voter experiences smoother.

During the holiday break, while our office will be closed, our team will remain available to assist with urgent matters, ensuring your elections and voting processes run smoothly. Whether you’re planning for an upcoming election or need immediate support, we’re here to help.

We wish you a joyful and successful New Year and look forward to supporting many more of your elections ahead.

From all of us at Simply Voting, we wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season, and a very democratic New Year!

Protecting Your Elections: Simply Voting Renews SOC 2 Type I Certification

Posted on by Bret Scofield

Each year, Simply Voting undergoes an independent SOC 2 Type I audit to evaluate the strength of our security and operational controls. We’ve recently completed our latest annual assessment, reaffirming that our systems and practices meet the rigorous Trust Services Criteria established by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA).

What the SOC 2 Type I Compliant Process Entailed

To maintain our security commitment to our customers, Simply Voting partnered with A-LIGN, an independent auditing firm renowned for its expertise in compliance assessments. The audit involved:

  • Comprehensive interviews with our team,
  • Thorough examination covering 181 pieces of evidence, and
  • Rigorous review of our company’s administration, online voting system, and underlying server infrastructure.

The resulting audit report confirmed that Simply Voting meets the SOC 2 Trust Services Principles for Common Criteria/Security, Availability, and Confidentiality. This demonstrates our commitment to providing reliable and secure voting solutions to our clients.

Why This Matters for Our Clients

Maintaining SOC 2 Type I compliance is a testament to Simply Voting’s continued dedication to delivering secure and dependable internet voting solutions. We understand that our clients rely on us to safeguard their election processes and data, and this certification provides independent assurance that our systems are designed to meet their expectations.

This milestone reinforces our ongoing commitment to transparency, accountability, and trustworthiness, core values that define Simply Voting’s mission to deliver secure, fair, and accessible voting solutions for organizations worldwide.

For more information about our commitment to security or how our SOC 2 compliance benefits your organization and your online elections, feel free to contact us or visit our website.

Our New Feature: Nominations

Posted on by Bret Scofield

We are excited to announce a new election type for our online voting platform: our new feature, nominations. 

You can now collect nominations right inside Simply Voting before your election begins. No more juggling tools or manual steps, everything from nominations to final voting happens in one streamlined platform.

It’s faster, easier, and keeps your entire election process all in one place.

In a nomination election, electors can nominate any elector for one or more position(s) on a ballot. It can optionally include a confirmation period during which nominees can accept or decline their nomination(s) and provide a candidate statement and photo that will be incorporated into the final ballot.

Election organizers can then save time setting-up the election using the nomination results to populate the final ballot. 

How does it work?

To set up a nomination election in the Election Manager tool, simply create a new election:

Select “Nomination” as the type, and check the box labeled “This is a nomination election.”

In the Election Manager tool, you designate a new election as a nomination event, and then determine nomination settings such as if nominees are allowed to accept or decline nominations, and if candidate photos and statements can be provided.

You will also need to upload your list of electors and indicate the positions that will be on the ballot. Like any other election, you will also schedule an email blast, proof the ballot and finalize the election. 

Once your electors have nominated candidates and the election is finished, all nominees will be listed on the nomination results page. If applicable, you will then allow nominees to confirm their nomination and add their statement and photo.

Once you are done processing nominations (and once the confirmation period is finished, if applicable), you will need to “click” on “populate” to create the election ballot.

For more information about managing a nomination election, see https://help.simplyvoting.com/docs/en/nominations

This new feature allows you to run your nomination process and election on the same platform while facilitating your nomination process and simplifying your ballot setup. 

Log in to your Election Manager now to start setting up your next nomination election. 

Secure Voting Solution for Ontario Municipal Elections 2026

Posted on by Bret Scofield

Visit Simply Voting’s Booth at the 2025 AMCTO Conference: Your Partner in Secure Voting Solutions for Ontario Municipal Elections 2026.

The Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO) is hosting its 2025 Annual Conference from June 8th to 11th, 2025 in Windsor, Ontario. This event brings together local government professionals, industry experts, exhibitors, and thought leaders.

Simply Voting Solutions for Ontario Municipalities in 2026

With the Ontario municipal elections approaching, municipalities are seeking secure, accessible and efficient voting platforms. Our online voting platform offers hybrid election solutions:  

  • Paper Ballot: Thanks to our two-way live sync with DataFix VoterView, you can introduce internet voting while seamlessly maintaining your traditional paper ballot process.
  • Telephone Voting: Simply Voting’s telephone voting system provides voters with audio ballots that may be submitted using a touch-tone dialpad. An excellent solution for offering your voters an alternative voting channel.

Why visit our booth?

At our booth you will:

  • Learn about our secure and accessible voting solutions tailored for Ontario Municipal Elections.
  • Discuss your municipality’s specific needs with our election experts.
  • Explore how our platform can improve your election process and ensure compliance with Ontario’s election regulations.

Other municipalities have already chosen Simply Voting, visit our booth at the 2025 AMCTO Conference to find out how our Canadian made solution can support your municipality’s needs.

For more information about the AMCTO Conference, visit: https://www.amcto.com/conference.

Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Election Concludes Successfully with Simply Voting’s Secure Online System

Posted on by Bret Scofield

Montreal, Canada – June 5th, 2025 – Simply Voting Inc., a leading provider of secure online voting solutions, proudly announces the successful completion of the Liberal Party of Canada’s leadership election using its voting platform. Mark Carney was elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party and is now Canada’s Prime Minister following this highly anticipated race.

The election, which concluded on March 9, 2025, saw significant engagement, with 151,899 members securely casting their ranked ballots through Simply Voting’s platform, representing nearly 93% of verified members. With 85.9% of the vote, Carney defeated the former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, the former government house leader Karina Gould and the former member of parliament Frank Baylis. He also dominated in all 343 ridings, showing he has Liberal support across the country.

A Secure and Transparent Voting Process

The contest followed a ranked ballot system, ensuring that the winning candidate had broad support across the country rather than just securing the highest number of votes.

Liberal Party officials praised the seamless experience of using Simply Voting’s system. “Simply Voting was a great partner in this process, their technology worked flawlessly and ensured a secure, fair, and robust Leadership race”, said Azam Ishmael, National Director of the Liberal Party of Canada.

“The challenge was complex, requiring the seamless integration of Canada Post’s Identity+ service, the Liberal Party’s custom voter registration platform and our voting system, ensuring secure, real-time synchronization across all components”, said Brian Lack, President of Simply Voting.

Simply Voting’s platform ensured the highest level of election integrity through its robust security features, including strong encryption, anonymous electronic ballots, and instant tabulation of results. The system allowed party members from across the country to participate securely, reinforcing confidence in the democratic process.

About the Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada is one of the country’s major political parties, dedicated to the principles of individual freedom, responsibility, and human dignity within a framework of a just society. Committed to providing equal opportunity for all persons, the party emphasizes the enhancement of Canada’s unique and diverse cultural community and the preservation of the Canadian identity in a global society.

For more information about the Liberal Party and their initiatives, please visit www.liberal.ca.

New feature: Archive Past Election Without Losing Important Information

Posted on by Bret Scofield

We are excited to announce a new functionality to our online voting platform: Election Archiving.

This new feature is designed to help you declutter your Election Manager while keeping your organization’s data safe.

What does this new feature do?

Archived elections will be deleted from the main elections page of your Election Manager and placed in an archive. Essential information will be preserved while sensitive data like electors’ lists will be deleted to increase the safety of your election data and protect voter privacy. 

Archiving an election will:

  • Save the election’s name, Election ID, start & end dates, number of votes, number of electors, and number of questions under the Archived Elections section.
  • Save a summary of the results as a downloadable CSV file under the Archived Elections section.
  • Permanently erases the Certified Results PDF from your account.
  • Permanently erases all associated elector data, logs, and individual votes from Simply Voting’s servers.

How does it work?

To archive an election, navigate to the Elections page and click on the Archive button in the action column next to the desired election, then click on confirm.

To review your archived elections, navigate to the Elections page and click on the Archived Elections button.

Whether you are managing an HOA, a University or a Union, keeping your election records organized and secured is essential. This feature allows you to do both without compromise.

Log in to your Election Manager now to start archiving your old elections.

Simply Voting is now an Approved Vendor for IAFF Elections

Posted on by Bret Scofield

We are excited to announce that Simply Voting has officially become an approved vendor for IAFF elections. This partnership marks a new milestone in our commitment to provide transparent, secured and accessible elections for unions.

About IAFF:

The IAFF (International Association of Fire Fighters) is one of the largest and most influential labor unions in North America. They are advocating for the rights, safety, and future of fire fighters, emergency medical workers, and rescue workers across the United States and Canada.

Compliance with the LMRDA:

The IAFF follows the guidelines outlined by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, therefore complying with those guidelines is essential to become an approved vendor. This ensures that all vendors meet high standards for quality, security and practices.

The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) establishes democratic standards for conducting regular elections of union officers and elections of delegates who elect officers. The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), an agency within the Department of Labor, is responsible for enforcing the LMRDA.

Simply Voting complies with the LMRDA’s requirements by:

  • Ensuring ballot secrecy and offering the ability to remove any link between a voter and their vote.
  • Ensuring that any voting credentials provided to members are not available to others, through union or company websites or in some other manner.
  • Employing safeguards that can detect and log efforts to breach the encrypted file and access information about how particular voters voted.
  • Using encryption technology meeting industry standards that ensures the integrity of the ballots at all points from when they are cast to decryption and counting and disclosing the use of such encryption technology to observers.
  • The opportunity to observe any steps necessary for the counting of the votes, and any other steps necessary to audit that process.
  • Maintenance of detailed logs of every transaction and means to ensure the integrity of those logs.
  • Periodic audits of the system by an authorized independent party.
  • Allowing union members to vote only through a secure portal
  • Randomizing the order in which votes are stored in the encrypted file so that the ballot tally reveals no information about the order in which votes were cast.
  • Offering the ability to store election records for 1 year or more.

The full guidelines can be found here.

Other types of unions we are serving:

Other unions also trust Simply Voting for their elections whether it is for collective bargaining or leadership votes. Our secured, accessible and customizable online voting system is designed to adapt to your requirements whether you need internet only or hybrid elections. We offer online voting, paper ballots, telephone voting and in person kiosks to make your elections more inclusive and efficient.

Whether you are planning on running a large-scale national vote or a small local one, our flexible online voting tool will meet your needs.

Learn more on how we support unions here.