About OpaVote Online Voting

OpaVote was created in 2011 and is a continuation of the OpenSTV project that was started in 2003. Our goals at OpaVote are to:

• Provide the best possible experience for both voters and election managers. Getting voters to vote is challenging so we provide a clean and simple user interface for voters. OpaVote is fast and works great on mobile devices.
• Provide top-notch security and reliability. OpaVote encrypts voting pages with state-of-the-art encryption for security, runs on Google servers for fast responses, and sends voting emails using Sendgrid to make sure emails land in voter inboxes.
• Maintain voter privacy. Voter emails are used ONLY for your election.
• Be cost effective! OpaVote is much less expensive than most other providers even though OpaVote provides better services.
• Promote the use of better voting techniques. OpaVote specializes in ranked voting because ranked voting provides better outcomes than check-the-box voting.

Meet the Founder

OpaVote was founded by Jeff O'Neill. Jeff's passion for helping people vote the right way motivated him to start writing voting software in 2003 and to found OpaVote in 2011.

Jeff has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and a Juris Doctorate. During law school, Jeff was a summer intern at Fair Vote and the National Voting Rights Institute. Jeff wrote a law review article setting forth legal grounds for mandating fairer voting procedures under the U.S. Constitution.

The article, Everything that Can be Counted Does not Necessarily Count: The Right to Vote and the Choice of a Voting System, was published in the Michigan State Law Review, cited by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in upholding the legality of ranked-choice voting in San Francisco, and relied upon by the City of Minneapolis in successfully arguing for the constitutionality of IRV under state law.

Jeff lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with his wife and two cats. Jeff also works as a patent attorney at GTC Law Group, runs Patent Bots, and is a director of a conservation non-profit called Earthwise Aware. When not working, Jeff enjoys Cross Fit and binge watching TV shows.