News & Insights
We’re Making History in Real Time.
Our timely insights share informed perspectives on the rapidly evolving story of Election Technology, as it unfolds.
Elections and the Fractal Fracas of Misguided Innovation
We’ve recently seen a bit of an online fracas about the word “fractal” in relation to elections and election fraud. It turns out that it’s easy to untangle most of it by focusing on just two questions. To discuss those questions, co-founder & Chief Technology Officer John Sebes and I co-wrote this piece. It sets the table for more conversation about work underway to produce a far higher caliber, easier to use data hygiene engine for voter registration data...
The Challenges of iVoting Implementation
When we last left this discussion, I had laid out a basis for our interest in technologies just over the horizon or "ready next" and in particular the growing interest in smartphone voting. I am essentially carving up a technology backgrounder white paper for easy reading here. Today I help us dive in with a survey of the challenge areas to "Pajama Voting" (I love that phrase)...
Response Letter to POLITICO Article on Critical Election Infrastructure
Below is a letter sent to Tim Starks and Cory Bennett of POLITICO, who cover cyber-security issues. There seems to be some fundamental misunderstandings of the challenges local election officials (LEOs) face, the process by which the equipment is qualified for deployment (albeit decrepit archaic technology by today's standards), what the vulnerabilities are (and are not), and why a designation of "critical infrastructure" is an important consideration. We attempt to address some of those points in this response to Tim's otherwise really good coverage....
Voter Services Portal: Open Source Innovation
The Voter Services Portal component of the Open Source Election Technology Framework is a freely available highly extensible online voter registration platform that can cut the cost of States' and jurisdictions' custom development by as much as 75% and reduce the time to develop and deploy from months or more to merely a few weeks. Why wouldn't any jurisdiction moving to online voter services strongly consider this freely available source code, open for innovation? That's the whole point of our non-profit technology R&D effort: increase confidence in elections and their outcomes by offering technology innovations that can be easily adopted, adapted, and deployed. Sure, there are costs associated with adaptation and deployment; after all, open source does not necessarily mean free source. But the time and taxpayer dollars savings should make this an easy decision...
Fighting for Democracy Means More Than Bearing Arms
On this 239th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, we find ourselves reflecting on the causes of democracy and the good and just fight to protect and preserve democracy--not only here in the United States of America, but globally. The cause of the OSET Foundation, manifest in the TrustTheVote Project, is one important, arguably vital aspect of that good and just fight. It is likewise important to illustrate that fighting for our democracy means more than bearing arms.
Making Elections Data Open Data: The Sequel
Today, members of the Core Team are in Vail, Colorado at the IACREOT Conference to unveil the next phase of VoteStream, the elections results and reporting subsystem of our Open Source Election Technology Framework. This is an awesome day, and we owe a great deal of thanks to the Knight Foundation for continuing to support this important part of the Framework.
The Moose Lurking in the Room
To hec with the elephant (regardless of who you think will control Congress after election day), the real beast in the room may be a Moose -- Alaska style. Our CTO notes an article from yesterday that points out how Alaska's close U.S. senatorial race, combined with their allowing ballots to be digitally returned across the Internet, may pose the greatest threat to a derailed election we've seen yet.
But the real point John makes is that sadly, Alaskan voters may not even be aware of the risks and who in this case is watching over their ballots -- at least those returned in the inherently insecure manner of the Internet, no matter how "secure" the "experts" are claiming the process to be. If the ballot return system in Alaska were truly as secure as their vendor claims, then Banks would be using their methods, and the massive amounts of hacked customer personal information at major brands this year might have been alleviated. Have a look and give us your take.
OSET Featured on TechCrunch
OSET Foundation Board Member Chris Kelly, a Silicon Valley venture investor and philanthropist, and former Facebook exec, pens an op-ed for TechCrunch on the Election Day 2014.
On the Civic Technology Landscape, the TrustTheVote Project is an Atypical Structure, Part Two
The second of two blog posts exploring how the TrustTheVote Project fits in the "civic tech" landscape.
Three-Step Test for "Open Source"
To our elections official stakeholders, Chief Technology Officer John Sebes covers a point that seems to be popping up in discussions more and more. There seems to be some confusion about what "open source" means in the context of software used for election administration or voting. That's understandable, because some election I.T. folks, and some current vendors, may not be familiar with the prior usage of the term "open source" -- especially since it is now used in so many different ways to describe (variously), people, code, legal agreements, etc. So, John hopes to get our Stakeholders back to basics on this.
On the Civic Technology Landscape, the TrustTheVote Project is an Atypical Structure
So where does the TrustTheVote Project fit in the broader “civic tech” movement that so many people in the technology world write and talk about? This is the first of two posts on this thought.
Rock the Registration Day!
On National Voter Registration Day, we note that The TrustTheVote Project is behind an open source effort to innovate online voter registration tools for States and public registration services. Here's the back story.
David Plouffe’s View of the Future of Voting — We Agree and Disagree
David Plouffe, President Obama’s top political and campaign strategist and the mastermind behind the winning 2008 and 2012 campaigns, wrote a forward-looking op-ed [paywall] in the Wall Street Journal recently about the politics of the future and how they might look.
He touched on how technology will continue to change the way campaigns are conducted – more use of mobile devices, even holograms, and more micro-targeting at individuals. But he also mentioned how people might cast their votes in the future, and that is what caught our eye here at the TrustTheVote Project. There is a considerable chasm to cross between vision and reality.