IT’S a company which has run votes ranging from a Eurovision fan song contest to a Hollywood takeover of a football club.
Southampton-based firm Mi-Voice has been caught up in the controversy surrounding the SNP leadership race as the company overseeing the contest.
The campaigns for Kate Forbes and Ash Regan last week raised concerns about the integrity of the election and called for an independent auditor to be appointed.
Speaking about Mi-Voice, which has run the internal contests for the SNP since 2013, Regan said: “They are an independent company but they’re also on contract to the SNP.
“Just for the sake of increased transparency, my view is it should be a separate company that the SNP don’t have an ongoing relationship with.”
However, Humza Yousaf has said he has confidence in the election and warned against indulging in “baseless smears”.
Other senior party leaders have also weighed in to back the process, with Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney saying they have “100%” confidence in the system.
According to its website Mi-Voice, which is a trading name of Democracy Technology Ltd, was established in 2006 by iMeta Technologies.
This is described as a firm with a background in “developing secure transactional applications for clients such as Virgin Money and top tier investment banks and broker/dealers”.
In 2007, it says it developed an e-voting platform for the UK Government’s Electoral Modernisation Programme.
The company’s website states: “With security, usability and audit at the heart of the design, Mi-Voice Electorate offers an e-voting platform that maintains voter trust, whilst providing an accessible, fully auditable and transparent process for all parties.
“Many of the features of Mi-Voice Electorate have been incorporated into our commercial offering which has been used by central Government for a number of international projects, including supporting voting events for The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Youth Parliament and NHS.”
Mi-Voice was involved in running a vote for Eurovision fans to have their say on songs that should have been taking part in the cancelled Eurovision Song Contest in 2020.
It was also appointed by Welsh football club Wrexham AFC to allow its members to have their say on the sale to Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
The firm states that it is also an “approved independent scrutineer supporting trade unions with their balloting and election requirements”.
The Sunday National asked Mi-Voice for more information on its involvement with the SNP and any other political parties and its role as an independent scrutineer, as well as a response to the concerns raised by Forbes and Regan.
But the firm, who has previously been directing enquiries to the SNP, did not respond to requests for comment.
In a letter to candidates last week, SNP National Secretary Lorna Finn said it was an independent company, adding: “No-one in HQ has access to live data from the ballot or any Mi-Voice systems, and no-one will know the result until it is provided to me by Mi-Voice on March 27.”
