Uncounted votes in NC, programming error

Today's news of e-voting malfunction underscores my previous point about complexity of voting systems. This time, about 4000 ballots went uncounted in North Carolina's election this week.

Shifting the Heavy Lifting: from E-voting System Vendor to Pollworker

Thanks to election technology expert Noel Runyan, I can explain another reason why the U.S. election systems market is under-served by today’s for-profit vendors of election technology. (And to read up on several other reasons, see Noel’s congressional testimony.)

Open Source: Good for Business, Innovation … and the Public

In a recent article on Businessweek.com, John Hagel and John Seely Brown describe the powerful innovation strategy used by the Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF). MRF is a Silicon Valley nonprofit using an open-source approach to scientific research and drug

Can the Federal Government Help Repair the Election System?

I've said before that one factor in U.S. election complexity is the variety of requirements and practices in the balkanized election system. But people still (rightly!) ask, could the federal government do more to help?

Voter ID and e-voting technology

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling onvoter ID high-lighted one of the many twisted issues in election policy. But combine that twistiness with the use of tech for e-voting, and you get some possibilities that are positively torqued -- and OBTW make another case for open source tech in elections. Here's how.

Is Security the Problem for E-Voting?

One of the most vexing frequent issues in e-voting debates is the idea of security vulnerabilities. I don't think that security is *the* problem with actual e-voting systems, but I do think that in-security concerns are a significant problem with the way many people think about how we do e-voting.

Paper trails, Voter IDs, and election machines

I wanted to call attention to another fine article in the "Freedom to Tinker" blog, this one by Dan Wallach.

Good Q&A on OSDV in "Interviews Online"

Just wanted to point readers to a good interview that Greg and I did today with Interviews Online ... and a big thank you to Dave Witzel for inviting us.

FYI, here is a partial list of questions from the interview. (And if you find any of the answers comment worthy, feel free to comment here.)

How did you get started working on voting systems?

Why "open source"?

Digital Voting Systems — How to Build for Trust

Just back from an excellent (5th) edition of the Freedom to Connect Conference.

I want to tell you about another event next week our CTO will be speaking at descibed below, but first I owe a quick comment about F2C, as the Producer graciously gave us the podium to speak about the OSDV Project, which led to 3 hours of excellent conversation at an evening reception.

House Panel OKs "Voting Paper Trail" Bill

I thought that today's news about e-voting and legislation is notable as an example of the way voting technology and policy interact in our unique U.S. voting system.

First, what was Congress working on? Crafting legislation about elections; one bill to authorize payments to states for efforts to put in place paper ballots or paper audits for the November 2008 election, and another that effectively over-rules 21 states' regulations requiring a voter to have a valid "excuse" to qualify for an absentee ballot (a.k.a. vote by mail).