Every five years, various 7th Day Adventist conferences meet to discuss and deliberate issues, bylaw changes, and more. Traditionally, all voting during these events was handled by pen-and-paper ballots and manual vote-counting. While this process allowed the conferences to conduct a secret ballot, the process was often stressful, tedious, and time-consuming.
Meridia was called on by the NAACP to provide an electronic voting system for 3,500 delegates at their July 14-20th 2022 Annual Convention in Atlantic City, NJ. This year, in their first in-person meeting since 2019, for the first time in their 113-year history, NAACP chose to move away from voice and paper voting.
The Churches of God Eastern Regional Conference had used paper ballots for many years before switching to Meridia’s TownVOTE electronic voting system in April 2022. During this meeting, the conference used electronic voting for the first time to vote on new council members, as well as a large vote for a delegation of people they plan to send to their national conference.
The democratic process can be found in organizations large and small, and nowhere is this more true than the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League, where the organization conducted two types of votes to elect their president and select grant funding with the help of TownVOTE electronic voting software and keypads.
Yale University’s CELI summit started working with Meridia in 2020 when they purchased 300 keypads for use in their quarterly meetings. Since then, we’ve created custom-filtered Powerpoint slides that audience members can interact and vote on, as well as elegant, custom Yale-themed membrane for the keypads.
The 2022 town meeting season is in full swing, with dozens of New England towns convening once again to vote on issues that affect their lives and communities.
The town of Sterling, MA used Meridia’s voting keypads and software during the Pandemic in 2020, and 2021 to hold a massive outdoor meeting at their local airport. Now their 2022 town meeting brought them back indoors, proving the flexibility and speed of the EZ-VOTE electronic voting system and keypads.
In their new faced-paced segment, WeTweet, Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show teamed up with Meridia to engage their audience with custom EZ-VOTE keypads. With three simple options, “Yes, No, or Abstain,” and the ability to count votes automatically, the system was a breeze to use for Jimmy and everyone involved.
Chicago City Council finally decided to purchase an electronic voting system for $500,000, they were aiming to simplify, speed up and organize their voting process and bring it to the 21st century. Let’s see how their voting system compares to what Meridia offers.
Meridia’s software and hardware serves a wide array of public – including those with visual impairment. For those who have color-blindness, are hard-of-seeing or legally blind, voting on important issues in their community can be difficult using electronic devices.
We have worked with our clients and developed a keypad that not only gives the user haptic feedback they need in order to know whether they are pushing an actual button, but also provides a Braille symbol for Yes, No, and Abstain vote. Plus, it makes a sound when you push the button, so you know you voted.
