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.

Piling on the Kraken-Busting of Waldron...
Commentary, Election Results, Risk, TrustTheVote® OSET Institute, Inc. Commentary, Election Results, Risk, TrustTheVote® OSET Institute, Inc.

Piling on the Kraken-Busting of Waldron...

This week the TrustTheVote Project posted an article that is a breakdown/take-down of a slide presentation circulated inside the Trump Administration in the final weeks leading up to 1-6-21. That article combined with some other events this week led us to offer a couple additional points here…

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The Case for Mobile App Voting: Can We Know the Risks to the Whole Election?

The Case for Mobile App Voting: Can We Know the Risks to the Whole Election?

In a recent InformationWeek Dark Reading article, Kelly Jackson Higgins asks whether Internet voting by mobile app is better than other forms of Internet voting, based on better security. Rewinding to the beginning of this series: my response is, “No, App based mobile voting isn’t preferable to other forms based on security.” However, it might be preferable to other methods based on voter convenience, but there are many other factors...

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New Securing the Voting Report Details Settled Consensus Except for One Major Point

New Securing the Voting Report Details Settled Consensus Except for One Major Point

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) new Report on election security released last Thursday among other things, verifies a settled consensus: a shift to all-paper-ballot elections coupled with Risk Limiting Audits.  While the report makes several sound proposals, it has a significant blind spot…..

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Commentary Ms. Voting Matters Commentary Ms. Voting Matters

Democracy Rebooted; Some of it Left on the Cutting Room Floor

What a day!  The Atlantic Council hosted an executive round table that featured an international group of 30 of the best minds in election administration and technology.  One of our co-founders, Gregory Miller was fortunate to be included in that group of participants.  There was an excellent two-hour discussion that can be seen here.  Read on to learn about our responses.....

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A Hacked Case For Election Technology

A credible election technology company makes an incredible assertion, and the result is our CTO hot-in-pursuit of some intellectual honesty.  The good news: the conversation is growing on the emerging issue of America's crumbling election technology infrastructure.  The bad news: articles like the one reviewed by our CTO, particularly when published by a respectable online scientific journal create a "reality distortion field" resulting in "sound-bytes" that can mislead policy makers, politicians, and less informed pundits.  Result: degradation of the signal to noise ratio and a hacked case for election technology.  Read on, for a dose of intellectual honesty from our Chief election technologist...

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NCSL Convenes Policy & Election Technology Summit

NCSL Conference on Policy and Elections Technology is in full swing in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Our Chief Development Officer is set to participate in an interesting panel on the future of elections technology in a post-HAVA funded world.  We have a position document responding to several questions posed to us in advance of the conference available for download...

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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.

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“Digital Voting”—Don’t believe everything you think

“Digital Voting”—Don’t believe everything you think

In at recent blog post we examined David Plouffe’s recent Wall Street Journal forward-looking op-ed [paywall] and rebalanced his vision with some practical reality.

Now, let’s turn to Plouffe’s notion of “digital voting.”  Honestly, that phrase is confusing and vague.  We should know: it catalyzed our name change last year from Open Source Digital Voting Foundation (OSDV) to Open Source Election Technology Foundation (OSET).

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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.

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