open voting solutions critical analysis 1 america’s voting systems presenter: david rr webber, cto...

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Open Voting Solutions

Critical Analysis

America’s Voting Systems

Presenter: David RR Webber, CTO

http://openvotingsolutions.com

What Change has Occurred, What Changes are Needed?

Copyright © 2006/ 2007, Open Voting Solutions


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Critical Analysis

Agenda

• What Changes have Occurred?

• Lessons Learned

• Challenges and Needs

• Current Risks and Threats

• Opportunities and the Way Forward



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Critical Analysis

What Changes have Occurred?

Who drove the change?

What were their objectives?

How was democracy served?



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Critical Analysis

Facilitation of Change

• The Florida “hanging chad” election was the trigger for the introduction of computerized voting and tabulation systems

• HAVA – Help America Vote Act was vehicle for appropriating $4B to help States acquire computer systems

• EAC – Election Assistance Commission given oversight and facilitation role

• Result – private industry was given free rein and huge $ incentives and they took full advantage



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Critical Analysis

Changes in Voting Process

• Prior to computer systems adoption process was managed by citizens and appointed officials and overseen by the political parties, citizen groups and the legal process

• After computer systems introduction control of vote gathering and tabulation was handed over to private corporations

• Oversight through the EAC and State officials challenged by their lack of computer knowledge

• International standards not adopted



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Critical Analysis

Buying driven by expedience

• Objections over the impacts on democracy ignored

• Voter access used as blanket justification

• Format of EAC and funds distribution rules encouraged States to substitute haste for good practice and due diligence

• Blind faith in the infallibility of computer technology and lack of knowledge and experience by decision makers

• Fundamental failure to realize that voting is not like a cash register in a store or a banking ATM.



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Critical Analysis

What is wrong today?

• Voters have no way to check how computer recorded their actual votes – seeing “inside” the computer is impossible – so voting is now an act of faith in the machine

• Scanners or touch screens simply do not use enough voter verification to confirm how they interpret voters intentions – and record them - the result is digital equivalent of “hanging chads”

• Absolutely need hand cast paper ballots to restore verification and audit trail of real voter ballots



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Critical Analysis

What else is not there?

• Open public reporting of computer records

• Recently California SOS began publishing election results using open public record formats on the internet – no other State does thishttp://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ca_elect_results/result_example.htm

• Ability for State election officials to manage the computer equipment and voting ballots configuration and election day operations – instead this is all done by paid staff of private corporations

• Results tabulation on election day that can be independently counted and double checked



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Critical Analysis

Resulting Situation

• A lot of money was spent for over priced ill conceived solutions that were poorly validated

• Control of the voting process is in the hands of private companies

• Inspection, auditing and verification of election results is deeply challenged

• Serious errors have occurred and false election results returned as a consequence

• Democracy worldwide has suffered because of American failure and inability to provide leadership



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Critical Analysis

Lessons Learned?

• Technology is not a solution by itself

• Need citizen oversight and operational transparency

• Means to verify each operation and results must be designed-in

• Voter Bill of Rights and open public standards are essential

• Systems become obsolete much faster than predicted

• Democracy needs better voting systems that can be fully trusted



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Critical Analysis

Technology alone is not the answer

• Unfettered use of technology does not deliver the desired solutions

• There is always yet another wonder solution being offered by techno-vendors – aka snake oil

• Simple and transparent wins over complexity, obfuscation and encryption

• Open public standards are demanded so that systems are interchangeable and interoperable

• Low costs and maintainability are essentials



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Critical Analysis

Oversight and Transparency

• All aspects of the system setup and use must be open and verifiable by regular appointed election staff

• Vigilance is needed to make sure systems operate as expected and required

• Systems used need to be checked both before and after election day

• Election results must be independently crosschecked and reported in open public recording formats



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Critical Analysis

Voter Bill of Rights

• There are internationally recognized standards for electronic voting processes that protect voters rights

• These establish the formal process from announcement of the election to completion and declaration of the results

• Public inspection and citizen involvement is absolutely a key inviolatable need for these processes



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Critical Analysis

Democracy needs better voting systems

• On every continent we look today we see countries where elections are being compromised and sham democracy enacted

• The results are always that citizens are living worse and unfulfilled lives

• Every year America pays a huge price in dealing with the effects and results of such inequities

• These effects include: population disease threats, terrorism, refugees, military intervention, costs of trade and goods, aid costs, and drug trafficking



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Critical Analysis

Challenges and Needs

•How do we create trusted solutions?

•Provide better access for everyone

•Promote more transparent democracy globally



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Critical Analysis

Creating Trusted Solutions



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Critical Analysis

Providing Voter Access

• Military Voters



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Critical Analysis

Promoting Transparent Democracy



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Critical Analysis

Current Risks and Threats

• The 14 “Swing States” are highly vulnerable to computer voting issues

• Repeat of winners being determined by the Courts, not the voters

• Weakening of position of President by questions over the result legitimacy

• Democratic process in America being fundamentally undermined



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Critical Analysis



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Critical Analysis

Opportunities and the Way Forward

• Providing better democratic processes

• Solving the technology impasse

• Building tools to enable more democracy worldwide

• Change we can believe in



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Critical Analysis



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Critical Analysis

Solve Technology Impasse

• Public Open Source – Provides peer review and validation

• Anonymous Recording and Counting of Voting Ballots– Technology techniques so that

• A) candidate information is not exposed to software inspection

• B) voter privacy is ensured



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Critical Analysis

EML Transactions Summary

Communicating specific result details on candidates and electionsEML 520 - result

Results of election contest(s) and countsEML 510 - count

Documents access to voting records and reasonEML 480 – audit log

Group of votes being transferred for countingEML 460 – votes group

Actual record of vote castEML 440 – cast vote

Used for voter authentication during a voting processEML 420 – voter authentication

Used to register voters for an electionEML 310 – voter registration

Details of actual voters for an electionEML 330 – voter election list

Notification to voter of an election, their eligibility and how to voteEML 340 – polling information

Describes the actual ballot to be used for an electionEML 410 – ballot

Contest and candidates detailsEML 230 – candidate list

Used to nominate candidates or parties, consenting or withdrawingEML 210 – candidate nomination

Information about an election or set of elections. It is usually used to

communicate information from the election organizers

EML 110 – election event

PurposeDocument Name

Standard record structures to hold election information, ballot details and voting records



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Critical Analysis

Example - EML 230 Candidate List<EML Id="230" SchemaVersion="5.0">

<TransactionId>OK-2007-09-1</TransactionId> <CandidateList> <Election> <ElectionIdentifier Id=“Oklahoma 2007" /> <Contest> <ContestIdentifier Id="State Governor" /> <Candidate>Brad Henry</Candidate> <Candidate>John Wayne</Candidate> <Candidate>Bill Okapi</Candidate> <Candidate>Jane Smith</Candidate> </Contest></Election></CandidateList></EML>

Example of an XML formatted file

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Critical Analysis

Supporting the 5 Phases of an Election

• Ballot Preparation, Candidate & Proposal Details

• Voting & Accessibility Handling on Election Day

• Counting & Tabulating

• Declaration of Results

• Distribution and Archiving



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Critical Analysis

Concept of Operations

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Critical Analysis

Ballot Preparation

From:

The official printed paper ballot

To:

Computerized ballot definition



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Critical Analysis

Computerized Ballot DefinitionAfter printed paper ballot is scanned, election staff can check the scanned ballot image



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Critical Analysis

What‘s behind the scanned ballot image?

• Makes definitions straightforward and intuitive

process• Keeps definitions anonymous and secure

<column ID="1" offset="193"> <checkbox ID="1" top="46">1</checkbox> <checkbox ID="2" top="95">0</checkbox> </column> <column ID="2" offset="191"> <checkbox ID="1" top="200">0</checkbox> <checkbox ID="2" top="251">1</checkbox> </column> <column ID="3" offset="545"> <checkbox ID="1" top="46">1</checkbox> <checkbox ID="2" top="95">0</checkbox> </column> ………

Row / Column offsets XML

Simple Columns of checkboxes for each Contest



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Critical AnalysisDefining the Contests <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> -<EML Id="410" SchemaVersion="5.0“- xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" - xmlns:ns1="urn:oasis:names:tc:ciq:xsdschema:xNL:2.0“- xmlns:ns2="urn:oasis:names:tc:ciq:xsdschema:xAL:2.0" - xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:evs:schema:eml"> <TransactionId>2007-04-01</TransactionId> <MessageLanguage>en-US</MessageLanguage> <ManagingAuthority> <AuthorityIdentifier>Connecticut</AuthorityIdentifier> <AuthorityAddress /> <ResponsibleOfficer> <Responsibility>Election Board</Responsibility> <Name PartyType="Employee" Code="CT-100" /> </ResponsibleOfficer> </ManagingAuthority> <IssueDate>2006-05-04T18:13:51.0Z</IssueDate> <Ballots> <EventIdentifier Id="Official_Ballot" DisplayOrder="1"> <EventName>State Election</EventName> <EventQualifier Id="CT-2007-1">CT-2007-Wilton</EventQualifier> </EventIdentifier> <EventDescription> <Message /> </EventDescription> <Ballot> <ReportingUnitIdentifier Id="Wilton">Town of Wilton</ReportingUnitIdentifier> <Election> <ElectionIdentifier Id="2007-01"> <ElectionName>State Election Officers</ElectionName> <ElectionGroup Id="CT-01">Connecticut</ElectionGroup> <ElectionCategory>State</ElectionCategory> </ElectionIdentifier> <Description> <Message /> </Description> <Contest DisplayOrder="11" Completed="no"> <ContestIdentifier Id="CT-2007-1"> <ContestName>Governor and Lieutenant Governor</ContestName> </ContestIdentifier>

Election Details Entry Software

Ballot ItemsDefinition

Output

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Critical Analysis

Voting Process

• Open Poll Procedures• Vote and Scan process• Accessible Voting• Close Poll & Print – precinct totals



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Critical Analysis

Ballot Vote & Scanning Process

• Voter goes to voting station – enters selections

on paper ballot

• Proceeds to scanner station – and scans in

ballot…



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Critical AnalysisBallot Choices Review

Voter Choices Shown in Blue

Summary of allselections

Voter can optionallyscroll withmouse device toverify whole ballot



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Critical Analysis

Summary – OpenScan Approach

• Empowers election authorities to control, inspect, verify,

audit and manage voting systems.

• Dramatically lowers the cost of voting systems by using

COTS hardware and free, public open source software.

• Adheres to open source principles and EML

specifications to create transparency and verifiable

elections.

• Creates trustworthy technology-enabled election

solutions using paper ballots.

open voting solutions critical analysis 1 america’s voting systems presenter: david rr webber, cto...

Documents

open voting solutions

voting process

critical analysis copyright

open public record formats

advantage slide

way forward slide

state election officials

systems presenter