Open Source Digital Voting Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Open Source Digital Voting Foundation (OSDV) is a California-based, United States (pending) Public Benefit Corporation
. It was founded in November 2006 and incorporated in April 2007 in an effort to address issues surrounding US e-voting technology
. The purpose of the OSDV is to create voting systems that are accurate, transparent, verifiable, and secure.
for the purposes of advancing open-source designs and specifications; any software or hardware that it creates is free.
The work of the Foundation is done through a volunteer community including system and software developers, an outreach team, and experts in electronic voting
technology and trustworthy computing
.
The OSDV Foundation's application (IRS Form 1023) for tax-exempt status pursuant to section 501(c)(3) of the US internal revenue code is pending with the IRS .
Additionally, the foundation aims to restore trust in the processes of US elections. To this end, the OSDV is engaged in two related activities:
The major issue that concerned both founders was the lack of trust in the process of voting and election results.
The OSDV asserts that, for elections to retain real meaning, confidence must be restored in the systems for conducting voting; those systems must accurately capture the decision of the voter. As a result, the OSDV Foundation's projects are based on an open source
system, which invites anyone to participate in design, development, review and testing.
The OSDV Foundation's first project is TrustTheVote.
Public benefit corporation
A public-benefit corporation is a public corporation chartered by a state designed to perform some public benefit.A public authority is a type of public-benefit corporation that takes on a more bureaucratic role, such as the maintenance of public infrastructure, that often has broad powers to...
. It was founded in November 2006 and incorporated in April 2007 in an effort to address issues surrounding US e-voting technology
Electronic voting
Electronic voting is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes....
. The purpose of the OSDV is to create voting systems that are accurate, transparent, verifiable, and secure.
Overview
The OSDV operates as a non-profit organizationNon-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
for the purposes of advancing open-source designs and specifications; any software or hardware that it creates is free.
The work of the Foundation is done through a volunteer community including system and software developers, an outreach team, and experts in electronic voting
Electronic voting
Electronic voting is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes....
technology and trustworthy computing
Trustworthy Computing
The term Trustworthy Computing has been applied to computing systems that are inherently secure, available, and reliable. The Committee on Information Systems Trustworthiness’ publication, Trust in Cyberspace, defines such a system as one which...
.
The OSDV Foundation's application (IRS Form 1023) for tax-exempt status pursuant to section 501(c)(3) of the US internal revenue code is pending with the IRS .
Goals
- Provide clear, neutral, and sustainable public ownership of design specifications, draft standards, software code, hardware architecture, patents, and other intellectual properties and domains
- Establish an accountable and transparent decision-making structure for the essential activities of the Foundation
- Promote activities designed to help grow the OSDV movement, "Lectio Reformo", and specifically to re-invent how technology empowers and protects the votes of American citizens
- Advance the adoption of the OSDV technology standards and the SHARP technology framework
- Solicit funding and public participation in order to continue the work of the Foundation
Additionally, the foundation aims to restore trust in the processes of US elections. To this end, the OSDV is engaged in two related activities:
- Proposed standards: developing technology guidelines and other tools to aid in the development, evaluation, and use of computing technology in conducting elections; using real systems and real voting procedures to demonstrate the use of these guidelines and tools to show how high-assurance computing can be used as part of a high-confidence election process.
- Working prototypes: developing a demonstration test-bed of digital voting systems and services built on these guidelines, freely available for education and research purposes and suitable for mock or real polling.
History
The OSDV Foundation was founded in 2007 by E. John Sebes and Gregory Miller, with the purpose of resolving the challenges of electronic voting technology.The major issue that concerned both founders was the lack of trust in the process of voting and election results.
The OSDV asserts that, for elections to retain real meaning, confidence must be restored in the systems for conducting voting; those systems must accurately capture the decision of the voter. As a result, the OSDV Foundation's projects are based on an open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
system, which invites anyone to participate in design, development, review and testing.
The OSDV Foundation's first project is TrustTheVote.