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John Edwards Supports "Open Source" for Voting Systems
June 27, 2007
Contact:
Alan Dechert, 916-772-5360
President, Open Voting Consortium
http://openvoting.org
Reference: Letter from Edwards Campaign
9560 Windrose Lane, Granite Bay, CA 95746
Historic Decision by San Francisco Elections Commission Favoring Open Source Software for Elections
This was introduced by Commissioners Arnold Townsend and Victor Hwang. We congratulate them and all the other Commissioners for taking this bold step.
Here is the complete text of the general policy statement they passed:
Report From Red Hat Summit
I have returned from this 3-day conference with a new sense of optimism and hope. It was a great experience, and I thank all of you for helping to make OVC participation possible.
My keynote address on the morning of the first day was very well-received. It helped that the Red Hat CEO, Matthew Szulik, said some very nice things about the open voting project during his opening remarks. Everyone I met spoke very positively about the open voting project.
April 17 Victories for Open Voting
Legislative Efforts Having Impact
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren with Alan Dechert at a meeting last week. Lofgren is chair of the House Administration sub-committee on elections.
OVC is promoting legislation at the federal, state, and local level, to bring about complete transparency in the administration of public elections. The sooner we eradicate secret vote counting methods the better!
During the House Administration hearings (sub-committee on elections, chaired by Lofgren) last month, four of the witnesses spoke primarily about open source. Several of the bills (including HR 811, topic of these hearings) introduced in Congress have technology disclosure language.
We've had a hand in getting changes in the bill language. More meetings are planned.
Last year, State Senator Bowen (now Secretary of State Bowen) congratulated me for pushing for the first ever hearing on open source software for elections. Now the subject is coming up regularly at the local and federal level too.
Last year we sponsored AB 2097, which was carried by Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg (Los Angeles). This year, Assemblymember Krekorian (Burbank) is determined to see his election reform bill passed. It is set to be heard in the Assembly elections committee next Tuesday (Apr 17). It is similar to AB 2097 and has a more gradual timetable for implementation.
Our efforts in San Francisco might be the most interesting yet. The impact of decisions there could be seen sooner than federal or state legislation. The Board of Supervisors' Budget & Finance committee refused to move on the pending Sequoia contract because they insisted on technology disclosure language.
Now, officials in San Francisco are looking at adopting policy and/or legislation that would require full public disclosure of all voting system technology. This Wednesday, (Apr 18), the Elections Commission will discuss a general policy statement on the subject.
Stay tuned as we move forward. Your attention and support will help ensure success.
Open Voting Consortium CEO to Keynote Red Hat Summit 2007
*Open Voting Consortium CEO to Keynote Red Hat Summit 2007*
Alan Dechert Joins the Growing Panel of Visionaries for the May
Conference in San Diego
RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Red Hat (NYSE:RHT), the world's leading
provider of open source solutions, today announced the co-founder,
president and CEO of the Open Voting Consortium, Alan Dechert will
keynote at the third annual Red Hat Summit in San Diego, Calif. The Red
Hat Summit will take place May 9-11, 2007 at the Sheraton San Diego
Hotel and Marina.
The Red Hat Summit 2007 will bring together partners and customers of
County Election Officials Getting OVC Message
On Friday, January 19, San Francisco Director of Elections, John Arntz, issued a press release stating that they are establishing a task force one open source for the voting system. A week before that (Jan 12), OVC president, Alan Dechert, gave a presentation to the association of county election officials in California (CACEO). Here is the press release from Friday, followed by information about the CACEO presentation.
DIRECTOR OF ELECTIONS TO ESTABLISH AN OPEN SOURCE VOTING SYSTEM TASK FORCE
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTIONS
Successful trip concluded
Dear Friends of Open Voting:
As president of Open Voting Consortium, my job is to sell OPEN VOTING. What is it? And how do we get it?
The past eight days have been a great opportunity to get our message across to an important audience -- public officials at the state and federal level. I returned late last night (this morning, actually) from Minnesota after a meeting with Secretary of State Elect Mark Ritchie. On Friday, I was in Columbus Ohio for a meeting with Jennifer Brunner -- Secretary of State Elect of Ohio. Monday through Thursday of last week I met with staff members of U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives, as well as staff with the House Science committee and House Administration committee.
I explained to them that we will know we have OPEN VOTING when all voting technology and procedures are fully open to public scrutiny in a regular and systematic way -- no need to do public record requests or steal computer programming codes. If you want to have any of this information, it's yours instantly and free of charge. OPEN VOTING also means having an easily countable (and/or recountable) paper ballot. I explained the necessary steps to get there.
We still have a lot of work to do, but what a difference since Election Day! Our audiences are far more receptive than ever. This trip represents a quantum leap forward for OPEN VOTING.
Besides state and federal officials, we need to sell local officials as well as all our non-governmental target communities. More presentations are planned.
Without your help, there is no way I could even imagine doing such a thing. Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement.
Alan Dechert
Open Source Resolution Passed
"Open Voting Consortium is offering some real solutions to the problems we now have with proprietary voting systems. It's about time we get serious about supporting these initiatives." That's how Thomas Gangale, Sonoma County Democratic Central Committee member and author of the resolution put it.
Gangale adds, "There is no excuse for secret processes in the voting system. The public has an absolute right to know how our votes are processed. It's unfortunate that AB 2097, the bill sponsored by Open Voting Consortium -- carried by Assembly Member Jackie Goldberg of Los Angeles -- did not receive the necessary support to be signed into law this year. We want to make sure that OVC's new bill will have all the support needed."
