Peter Hurd-Watler -- Courtesy of the U of L

By Connor Gunn

U of L students win award for virtual voting platform

Sep 15, 2020 | 1:29 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB– Is virtual voting the way of the future? Some University of Lethbridge students could argue that’s the way it’s heading.

Veras Technologies INC. is a blockchain-driven, secure voting platform that allows users to sign in virtually and cast ballots from anywhere in the world.

The program reduces the constant need for polling stations, group gatherings, and manual manipulation of ballots, creating access to the political process like never before.

“We were sitting around trying to come up with a project for a blockchain hackathon and started talking politics,” says Veras Chief Executive Officer, Peter Hurd-Watler, and fourth-year student in the Dhillon School of Business.

The idea surfaced in May of 2019 and by the summer of 2020, with support from the U of L’s Agility program, they were ready to test the concept at the 150Startups’ Innovation Rodeo student pitch competition.

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It won both the regional and final championships as well as $10,000 and Hurd-Watler will go to Draper University in Silicon Valley in June 2021 for a five-week entrepreneurial accelerator program.

“Agility was really helpful in that they had a framework built on how to test your idea before putting a bunch of money into it,” says Hurd-Watler. “Their advice and guidance over the past year has been really important in helping us move this along.”

The idea was so simple to Hurd-Watler, who said if we do mobile banking from our phone, why can’t we vote from our phone too?

Hurd-Watler is part of a youth demographic, aged 18-24, that realized just a seven per cent voter turnout in the last Alberta election. Through Veras, he hopes to see a change.

To learn more about Veras, go to Veras.ca.

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