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."