Windows Azure App Helps Americans Living Abroad Vote in U. S. Elections

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According to TechFlash, Democracy Live is using the Windows Azure platform to host LiveBallot, a service that makes it easier for US military personnel and other citizens living abroad to vote in elections in the United States.

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Democracy Live helps make ballots and election materials available electronically for all American citizens, including military and overseas voters and voters with disabilities. After initially building its LiveBallot software on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud platform, Democracy Live switched to Windows Azure from Microsoft. The company found that Windows Azure programming is well supported by the robust Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 development system, and Windows Azure offers security and stability features that simplify development. In the 2010 elections, 250 local jurisdictions used LiveBallot, and they were able to markedly increase the participation of voters who live overseas or who have disabilities, while simultaneously reducing the cost of distributing voter materials and conducting elections. To find more info, read the case study “Electronic Balloting Experts Switch to Windows Azure to Improve Election Efficiency” here.

Developer Resources: Windows Azure SDK, Free Trial Account, InfoKit, Windows Phone SDK