St. Louis-based election technology firm, KNOWiNK, known for its flagship product Poll Pad, is tripling the size of its office in a new headquarters in Creve Coeur, Missouri.
The new 16,000-square-foot office has debuted with the renovation of the former American Heart Association building at 460 N. Lindbergh Blvd. The office is designed to support KNOWiNK’s continued innovation of voter check-in/registration technology and facilitate the recruitment and retention of its professional staff to better serve election jurisdictions throughout the country.
KNOWiNK employs 154 companywide, including 60 based in St. Louis.
KNOWiNK’s national voting check-in/registration technology solutions currently serves more than 1,700 election jurisdictions in 36 states and Washington, D.C., accounting for more than 50 percent of registered voters in the U.S. It is also a primary election technology vendor for the Province of New Brunswick and the city of Winnipeg in Canada.
Designed by Remiger Design and built by ISC Contracting, the two-level headquarters is an industrial modern design with a collaborative open office space. The main level features some private offices, huddle rooms, and space for sales and marketing, product development, quality control and client training. The lower level features a game room, break room, a town hall gathering space for company-wide meetings, a professional services and customer support office and a small warehouse. It also includes an outdoor deck for company functions.
The office is replete with St. Louis artwork to honor the roots of its founding. Industrial concepts are found throughout the interior including exposed duct work and the interior wall cladding that emulates that of shipping containers outside of offices.
The building has received a significant upgrade in audio/visual and information technology infrastructure to support technology lab functions and create a communications hub for KNOWiNK’s nationwide workforce.
Scott Leiendecker, a former elections director for the City of St. Louis, founded KNOWiNK in 2011 with the goal of introducing innovation and technology to facilitate enfranchisement by improving election management. KNOWiNK’s Poll Pad technology allows for quick, digital voter check-in and verification on election days, improving the election experience for voters and those managing elections. In 2020, the firm ranked as the fastest growing private company in St. Louis by the St. Louis Business Journal. In 2021, Leiendecker was named a 2021 Ernst & Young (EY) Entrepreneur of The Year® (EOY).
Since its founding 12 years ago, KNOWiNK has grown through a series of strategic acquisitions and investments. In early 2021, it acquired Fort Pierre, South Dakota-based BPro, Inc. and its voter registration software, which also provides election jurisdictions with election night reporting (ENR) tools.