Penny Chamberlain, Electoral Services Manager, Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council, commented:

“As postal votes increase, year after year, we realise the huge administrative burden each election brings. The OPT2VOTE online checking and the early voting have provided the election administrators with confidence in the electronic solutions.  The provision of early voting facilities had a small but positive impact on turnout.”

The Electoral Commission commented:

“The e-counting and early voting offers considerable learning value as they are proposing innovative methods in a combined election.  Lewisham and OPT2VOTE enjoyed a close working relationship. The OPT2VOTE project manager was based on-site at Lewisham throughout the pilot period. Any problems that arose were dealt with quickly. The project management documentation was of the quality and substance that would be expected to accompany such a project.”

Testing of the OPT2VOTE solution was undertaken by Lewisham beyond observation of demonstrations offered by OPT2VOTE both prior to supplier selection and as part of the training and awareness programme. This was important to demonstrate there were sufficient confidence and that the systems worked as required.”

Cheryl Mulvihill, Electoral Services Manager, Birmingham City Council, commented:

“The service provided by OPT2VOTE and the product that was delivered was excellent. All of the postal packs were delivered correctly, something that was of vital importance to the Council. We could not afford any mistakes and OPT2VOTE delivered.”

Chris Kenny, Electoral Services Manager, Halton Borough Council, commented:

"The service offered by OPT2VOTE is of a very high standard.  The company are responsive to the needs of their customers and fully appreciate the significance of electoral deadlines and accuracy of data.  The postal ballot packs are of a standard which is second to none. The ballot managed service was instrumental in allowing us to match declarations of identity with corresponding ballot papers during the all-out postal pilot elections in 2004."

Richard Samuel, Chief Executive, Thanet District Council, commented:

“OPT2VOTE’s E-counting was able to handle this count effectively and efficiently. Compared to a manual count, it dramatically reduced the amount of time to complete the count. Seeing the system in action highlighted how much can be achieved by the latest technology.”