NIST workshop on voting data standards

The event organized by NIST brought together experts from across the United States to discuss the needs and potential solutions.

Also John Borras, chair of the Election and Voter Services technical committee presented remotely by telephone from the UK.

Presentations and papers are available here:

http://vote.nist.gov/CDF-Workshop-Papers.htm

The OASIS EML v6.0 is available for review from http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/election

OASIS EML Top Reasons Brochure

The OASIS EML team has published their brochure detailing the top reasons for using the election markup language specifications to engineer voting solutions.

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/30366/EML-Top-Reasons.pdf

OVS submission to EAC on Open Voting systems

The concepts of open voting systems are poorly understood and articulated. OVS CEO - Mr Richard Johnson Ph.D., provides a suscinct description of the core concepts, needs, challenges and opportunities in this submission to the EAC in their current round of requests for comments.

Open letter to ACM on E2E voting and OASIS EML

An open letter from OVS CTO, David Webber, in response to the various views covered in the current issue of the Communications of the ACM Journal (Volume 51 No.10 10/08) around "Clean Elections".

The letter focuses on how using OASIS EML has allowed OVS to create trusted election mechanisms with a triple set of auditable records. The techniques and approach are compared to the mechanisms offered by the contributors.

Categorizing Issues for Digital Voting research

Understanding how voting as a process works as a human task is insightful - and shows that implementers of voting systems need to ensure that voters are fully involved by the process in a way that ensures they can exclude such potential pitfalls.

See this voting thesis paper from 2007.

Village Voice on the Impediments to open voting

The Village Voice has gone to print on the road blocks and opportunities for open voting technology in its current edition.

OASIS EML interoperability event in London

OVS contributed to the technology preparation behind the demonstration organized in 
London as part of the OASIS Europe Symposium.

The result was a very successful illustration of the power in the EML XML standards and the ability to achieve live interoperability across a wide range of voting solutions.

For more information see the details and examples here.

Do Paper Trails fail to secure e-Voting?

The ITIF foundation has postulated that paper trails do not by themselves secure e-Voting. Naturally nothing is a "magic bullet", and any component of a voting solution has to be carefully integrated into the other parts to ensure it provides a complete capability.

The counter argument produced by OVS does indeed show precisely how a secure solution is achieved using off-the-shelf computer components today - with verifiable paper ballots - simply and cost effectively.

Also included in the document is excerpts from the NIST/EAC work on software independence and how that is achieved using verifiable paper ballots.

The ITIF arguments can be found here: http://www.innovationpolicy.org/index.php?id=79
These seem mainly aimed at justifying research funding than any serious attempt to discredit paper. They also point up the need to secure voting record delivery and verification during the counting and totalling process, with an obvious hope that government funding for this area will be forthcoming.

State of California adopting EML 5.0 for election results reporting

Following media and press enthusiastic interest - the SOS of CA has provided a sample of 2006 Election results as an initial test sampler from their web site. It's using the new EML 510 format from v5.0 of the Election Markup Language specification:

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ca_elect_results/result_example.htm

Obviously this can provide media across the country with faster and more accurate details on election results in 2008.

Why use reputable COTS hardware for voting systems?

One reason can be seen from the following report by Dan Rather on ES&S machines assembled in the Phillippines.

Obviously using reputable suppliers with real ISO 9001 compliant manufacturing practices and facilities ensures that the election boards buying the systems are getting what they are expecting.

San Francisco Elections Commission adopts Open Source Voting Resolution

Last night, the San Francisco Elections Commission voted 6-1 to adopt a policy favoring the use of open source software in their voting systems, and, more generally, favoring the "maximum level of security and transparency possible consistent with the principles of public disclosure."

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has expressed strong support for a move towards open source election software.

Read the report here.

Why open source for voting systems?

Alan Dechert from Open Voting Consortium speaking at the recent Red Hat users conference in California.

John Edwards Supports "Open Source" for Voting Systems

John Edwards has become the first presidential candidate to support "open source code" for election systems. In a letter dated June 21st addressed to Alan Dechert, the Edwards campaign stated that, "To ensure security, these machines should be programmed with an open source code for complete transparency, and election results should be safeguarded by voter-verified paper records."

We wholehearted agree!

Full text of announcement - http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/blog/2007-jun-27/john_edwards_supports_open_source_for_voting_systems

OVS release Connecticut EML voting system

OVS releases a demonstration system illustrating an US Connecticut ballot. The demonstration system shows ballot creation, paper ballot printing and results counting functions all based on the OASIS EML specifications. The system is designed to illustrate the approach of using transparent open source ballots and auditable voting records and counting. A live on-line demonstration is also available on request from OVS.

OVS releases online demonstration system of EML voting

OVS releases a demonstration system illustrating an Italian Senate ballot. The demonstration system shows ballot creation, paper ballot printing and results counting functions all based on the OASIS EML specifications. The system is designed to illustrate the approach of using transparent open source ballots and auditable voting records and counting. A live on-line demonstration is also available on request from OVS.

EML white paper on importance of standards and interoperability in voting systems

The OASIS Election services committee (EML) have published a white paper on the importance of standards and interoperability along with conformance testing in ensuring better and trusted elections. OVS is committed to supporting use of EML in its solutions.

NYTimes: Existing voting systems marketplace practices continue to unravel

The NYTimes revealed in its article that Ciber - one of the two certified testing organizations - had actually been de-certified in the summer of 2006. This conflicts with Ciber's actions in that they had continued with New York state and other testing assignments without publically revealing this.

Furthermore the NYTimes article shows voting machines in use where voter privacy is clearly able to be compromised - a key legal requirement for NY elections.

All this raises serious questions about the level of testing performed and the nature of the testing required by the US EAC and how those tests are included into the procedures recommended.

Once again underscoring the need for open public solutions that can be scrutinized other than in closed private processes.

First release of EMLvoting open source tabulation system

Open Voting Solutions with assistance from Nortel Government Solutions (NGS) has made available the first open source application using Election Markup Language (EML) v4.0 standards for paper ballot scanning and tabulation.

The source code implements a trusted logic voting method to ensure the integrity of counting process along with its auditability.

See the EMLvoting.org site for downloads and setup instructions for the software.

OVS applies for certification from OVC

OVS has become the first voting system vendor to apply for certification with Open Voting Consortium, a California nonprofit corporation. While many independent experts have advocated open source software for election systems, no such products have been sold by voting system vendors. Companies like Diebold prefer to keep the inner workings of their systems confidential.

"There is no excuse for any secret methods to be involved in the tabulation of our votes," says Alan Dechert, President of the Open Voting Consortium. "It's about time that voting system technology be fully open to public scrutiny. We expect that Open Voting Solutions' OpenScan product will become the first commercially available Open Voting system."

Independent Verification: Essential Action to Assure Integrity in the Voting Process

The latest paper from Roy G. Saltman and funded by a grant from NIST provides an excellent round-up of election process and technology in America.

Roy confirms what the voting advocacy community already knew - but does so in an authoritative and clearly reasoned way.

Workshop On Trustworthy Elections (WOTE) presentation

OVS VP David Webber presented with John Borras, Chair of the OASIS Election Markup Language (EML) TC, to the Cambridge University sponsored Workshop On Trustworthy Elections (WOTE) and e-Voting techniques.

The presentation discusses the work on OASIS EML and then looks at the key factors needed to use with EML XML components to deliver in particular secure and trusted counting mechanisms.

There is also a white paper available here that discusses the technical details accompanying the presentation.

NewsForge Interview of OVS

The independent open source and linux community news journal interviews a selection of open voting notaries including OVS CEO - Dr Richard Johnson.

Richard is quoted as noting - "I think the absolute requirement is to ensure that all the voting-specific applications be open".

OVS Demonstrate at Internet Caucus Advisory Committee

The Open Voting Solutions demonstrated to a selection of congressmen, senators and their staff at the recent caucus in the Senate Building on Capitol Hill. Visitors saw how to use the Adobe PDF COTS tool to create a NY ballot form and then outputting standard EML 440 XML voting records.

Comments to the EAC on the VVSG

Comprehensive comments submitted to EAC on their VVSG outlining required improvements and changes in approach.

VOTE System News

The Verifiable Open Technology Elections (VOTE) approach is being developed to create a public solution for voting systems implementation. VOTE is a collaborative initiative between voting system vendors, open public standards organizations and public open source development organizations. More details will be announced shortly.