NI firm to supply booths for US election

A NORTHERN Ireland firm hopes that "dimpled chads" and "butterfly ballots" won't be features of the forthcoming US presidential election like they were back in the 2000 race.

Pakflatt, a Derry-based firm, is to supply its high-performance polling booths to every one of Washington DC's 750 voting venues following a deal clinched by its US distributor, Premier Election Solutions (PES).

Patrick McGonagle, managing director and founder of Pakflatt, describes the deal as one of the most significant in his company's 22-year history.

"For the DC Board of Elections and Ethics to choose our product over so many other homegrown brands is clearly strategically immensely significant for our ongoing global brand development," he said.

"Any success of our brand in the US is a cause for celebration, but to win the nation's capital is a pretty breathtaking achievement for a small family manufacturing company in Derry."

Mr McGonagle first struck the deal which led to the Washington win back in 2007, when he was approached by PES, a US distributor of voting technology.

This led to the signing of a five-year exclusive contract to supply a range of specified products to Premier for their election markets in US, Canada and the national territories, on June 14th of that year.

That autumn, Pakflatt won its first US contract to supply 400 polling stations in southern California.

Mr McGonagle attributes Pakflatt's success to date in the US to the uniqueness of its polling booth, which offers a cost effective, space-efficient solution for polling stations.

It is an easy to use flatpack booth with low-level disability access, which can accommodate four voters simultaneously and does not need any tools to put it together.

Pakflatt was founded over 22 years ago, and currently employs 20 people.

The company focuses exclusively on the elections market and produces 32 products.

Its first market was Britain, where it is now the dominant player, but it also supplies every polling station in Northern Ireland, as well as having a substantial presence in the Republic.

Pakflatt also provides its services in several emerging democracies.

While the Washington win is a major coup for the firm, and Mr McGonagle expects that the US will soon be the firm's number one market, he also expects that one of the company's new products will drive growth in the future.

Porsa is the company's new electronic register product, which will enable those in charge of polling stations to check a person's eligibility to vote via an electronic system.

Mr McGonagle is hopeful that this will drive sales for the company, as he believes that there is a market "everywhere" for the product.