News

Cash Tech adds voting application to Emma platform

February 20, 2002

LOS ANGELES -- Cash Technologies Inc. (AMEX: TQ) today announced that it has added a voting application to its EMMA transaction processing system that will allow local, state and federal election voting to be performed at any EMMA-driven ATM, POS terminal or Web site.

At ATMs and POS terminals, the application will permit both on-screen or traditional ballot voting and provides real time reporting of votes to any central election data center.

To securely establish the identity of registered voters and ensure one vote per citizen, EMMA will support the use of passwords, PINs, digital signatures or digital certificates issued by voting authorities, in addition to biometrics. A candidate's photo and information about the candidate or referendum can be viewed on-screen. All aspects of the application are controlled by downloadable software, easily permitting changes to ballot information or voting periods without the usual implementation difficulties.

Where paper ballots are desirable, Cash Tech's optical character recognition software, used in its check cashing and bill payment applications, will be used to read ballot information that the voter can confirm on-screen and pass on to a central server for instant tabulation. The physical document can then be retained for later use if needed.

Difficulties with this year's American presidential race vote count demonstrate the kinds of problems that can be solved with a solution like EMMA', said Cash Technologies CEO Bruce Korman. The successful use of electronic voting machines in countries such as Brazil, Korman added, give voters better access to the election process and governments immediate access to election results.

The company is in the process of meeting with government officials to initiate pilots of the new application.