Corrections Required: U.S. Voting System
Unverifiable paperless voting systems are still considered normal in many states; The software that counts our votes is secret proprietary property of Diebold, Sequoia, et al; The system is unnecessarily difficult to use (or impossible to use) for citizens with disabilities; Election judges still strain to divine voter intent on a significant percentage of ballots.The California Secretary of State's investigation amounts to a scathing indictment of the whole system.
If you believe that,
- the whole voting system must be open to complete public scrutiny with no room for "trade secrets,"
- the voting system must include a durable paper ballot that can be handled, stacked, counted, and recounted if necessary,
- the voting system should invite public participation instead of discouraging it,
- your ballot should be cast in private but counted in public,
- accessibility features should be built into the system,
- we need to conduct elections in a cost effective manner,
Why You Should Join Now
OVC is needed because the current system is faulty and too expensive. Billions have been wasted in recent years on inadequate solutions.
OVC needs your financial backing in order to continue its work and bring the idea/process to a fully functioning certified system. Much of the work is being done by volunteers, but there are many expenses that need to be paid so OVC can be represented at numerous meetings, hearings, conferences, and other events around California and the United States.
The time is now for you to become a dues-paying member of Open Voting Consortium (OVC). Memberships are scaled depending on who you represent. For individuals, supporting memberships start at $10 per month. For organizations, profit or nonprofit, governmental or nongovernmental, please see this page for membership information.
DEC 2009 PLEDGE DRIVE
GOAL: $10,000 per month in automatic subscription payments. CURRENT: $899Help OVC reach a funding level to sustain on-going development of the OVC system and consensus building. Use PayPal or arrange an automatic payment with your bank. Bank payments have lower overhead for us (PayPal takes about 3 percent). Set up your automatic monthly payment today. Thanks!
Recent News & Events
The Future of Voting Technology in California, the U.S. and the World: Why We Need a Decision Now
Brigette Hunley, Chair of the California Democratic Party's Computer and Internet Caucus recently announced,
Subject: CDP Computer & Internet Caucus MeetingI hope to see you there!Please join us on Saturday night from 6 to 8 pm at the San Diego e-board for our Government 2.0 Transparency Series
Our featured speakers are from OVC and they promise an exciting discussion on the future of voting technology.
Alan Dechert
OVC Presentation at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Washington D.C.
One of our top programmers, Parker Abercrombie, represented OVC at the National Institute of Standards and Technology workshop on Common Data Formats, OCT 30.
OVC has been pushing for Open Source and Open Standards for some years now. By all accounts, our presentation there was very well received.
The slides used are available here in PDF format. You can find presentation slides for the workshop presenters at NIST.
Thanks to Parker and thanks for all OVC supporters that helped make this happen.
OVC gains momentum with San Francisco Event
This was one of the more memorable events in all the years we have been at it. There was a very nice article in the Fog City Journal: Pelosi Adds Voice to Open Source Voting Systems Momentum.
Thanks to all that helped make this happen, and, of course, thanks to Christine Pelosi for brightening up the space.
California Democratic Council Voters Enjoy OVC
Delegates to the California Democratic Council conference September 26-27 in San Diego had a chance to try out Open Voting Consortium's Electronic Ballot Printing system. It's very simple: make your selections on a computer screen, and then print out your finished ballot.
"When will this be in all the voting booths in California?" That was the typical response.
OVC Boosted by Series of House Parties
Thanks to Eric Smith and all the fine people that attended the event Friday evening at his home: it was a great event. We raised some money for OVC and at least one more person agreed to host another event. Special thanks to Brent Turner for his organizing efforts.
Importantly, for our campaign, we met quite a few new people. There were about 20 people there that I had not met before. Attendees included Debra Walker, candidate for Supervisor in the 6th district. Also pictured above are Brent Turner and Eric Smith, who is running for Supervisor in the 10th district.
Luke Thomas of the Fog City Journal was there and took quite a few pictures.
The attitude here was all positive. Yes, we can!
The next event is at the home of Eve Matelan in Sunnyvale Sep 18th. Christine Pelosi will speak for us at our Oct 1st event in San Francisco. We are looking forward to building up a schedule of many more events to gain consensus and momentum for Open Voting.
OVC to provide Voting System for Democratic Party Elections
Aug 4, 2009
Contact: Alan Dechert, 916-772-5360
President, Open Voting Consortium
4941 Forest Creek Way, Granite Bay, CA 95746
GRANITE BAY, CA -- The California Democratic Council has asked Open Voting Consortium to provide the voting system for their September 27th Executive Board Elections in San Diego. This will be the most important demonstration OVC has done of their voting system so far. Hundreds of political movers and shakers will be trying out the system.
California Democratic Council President Henry Vandermeir made the request, and said that they will be voting for president, secretary, treasurer, and controller. Endorsements for statewide political offices and policies will be included in the Sep 27th elections. OVC will provide a booth for disabled access.
The idea initially came out of a casual conversation between OVC stalwart Brent Turner and Mr. Vandermeir. Mr. Turner said, "People in the Democratic Party frequently tell me they would like to try out the Open Voting Consortium voting system. I am delighted that they will have a chance to do that."
"This is an important step for OVC," said OVC president, Alan Dechert. "We are moving closer all the time to having a system that can replace existing flawed, secretive and proprietary voting systems for public elections."
Besides this large demonstration in September, OVC has other smaller but important demonstrations to give to election officials around the state of California over the next month.
Open Voting Consortium is a nonprofit organization that develops and promotes free and open source software for the conduct of public elections.
Voting System Industry Market Failure Could Lead to Its Disappearance
May 1, 2009
Contact: Alan Dechert, 916-772-5360
President, Open Voting Consortium
9560 Windrose Lane, Granite Bay, CA 95746
http://openvoting.org
Reference: Letter to Election Technology Council
Johnson County Kansas joins Open Voting Consortium
Contact: Alan Dechert
916-772-5360
alan@openvoting.org
Reference: http://tinyurl.com/6k46n4
Johnson County Kansas Joins Open Voting Consortium
Johnson County Election Commissioner Brian Newby explained, “Our Open Voting Consortium Associate Membership reflects our commitment to raising the urgency to bring alternatives to today's closed election systems to the market. When the time comes for us to replace election equipment -- and many of our voting machines already are at their half-life -- we want to be able to choose from a wide range of cost-effective and secure technology options that allow for ultimate flexibility as our county population grows. That makes it vital that innovative open systems be evaluated, brought to market, and certified expeditiously.”
Mr. Newby concludes, “Our membership will allow us to evaluate the technology while it simultaneously follows a fast track for federal and state certification, as well as a subsequent market launch.”
California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has called for open source software for election systems. But six weeks after Election Day, election officials in Minnesota are still mulling over ballots in effort to divine voter intent. “These antiquated systems need to go away,” said Alan Dechert. “We need unambiguous ballots and a modern system owned by the people.”
Open Voting Consortium (OVC) was founded in 2003, a nonprofit California corporation. OVC develops and promotes secure and accessible voting technology that is free and fully open to public scrutiny.
Open Source Voting: Transparent, Cheap, and You Get to Read Your Ballot
Orginally posted at Wild Bee.
Success at LinuxWorld
This fact was demonstrated earlier this month in a very public way. Thanks again to everyone that helped make this happen. It was by far the largest event ever for OVC. Over 800 voters cast ballots -- mostly high tech professionals, but people came from all over to participate in this trial. Voters included two members of the San Francisco Elections Commission, Richard Matthews and Gerard Gleason. San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly came by and gave a speech to the audience on Wednesday, August 6th, extolling the virtues of transitioning to a voting system owned by the people, not corporations. Other election officials and elected officials attended.
The system was well received by participants, and it worked as advertised. The election included five contests on the first day, then six contests on the second and third days.
At 6 pm after the first day, OVC received the list of eleven best-of-show finalists. By 10 am the next morning, the voting machines were ready and the polls opened with the new ballot definition (including voice prompts and tabulation routines updated and checked).
Press was very favorable. Besides the San Francisco Chronicle article posted before the event, there was an excellent Computerworld article that appeared during the 3-day event.
The event was also documented on YouTube.
Hundreds of people signed a support letter.
All of the 816 ballots cast scanned successfully with the barcode reader (in a previous trial in January of 2008, one out of 204 ballots could not be tallied with the barcode reader due to mangling and poor print quality, although the text was readable). Ballots were tallied in batches every 45 minutes or so. Each batch was then sealed in an envelope with a copy of the tally sheet.
A video-taped audit was conducted two weeks after the event. The batches that were checked demonstrated that the tally sheets matched a hand count of the votes. A few individual ballots were audited by checking the barcode output with the text on the ballot. The grand totals were also checked by summing selected contests from the tally sheets.
San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Deborah Gage reported Obama sweeps the open source vote 545 to 135 votes for McCain. Canonical won the People's Choice Award for best-of-show also in a landslide (the fact that Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth has endorsed OVC is purely a coincidence ... or maybe it's just that great minds think alike).
Brian Fox and Parker Abercrombie of The Okori Group deserve credit for bringing the OVC system to a whole new level of power and flexibility. We are ready to move to the next level. I predict you will see the OVC system used in official elections at the local level next year, and the federal level in 2010. To see more pictures, scroll down after you click here.
