California Association of Voting Officials

Last updated

California Association of Voting Officials (CAVO) is a non-profit organization that works with community members and voting officials to develop open source voting systems for use in public elections. In addition, CAVO provides training and education to election officials for the effective employment of open source voting technologies and management practices. [1] Utilizing proprietary software and hardware, current voting systems have been reported as being riddled with shortcomings and "...affected by critical flaws" in testing, certification, accuracy, accessibility, and security, while exhibiting a lack of transparency and conflicts of interest. [2] CAVO 's intent is to develop secure and transparent voting systems to ensure accurate vote counts coupled with the utmost in security by utilizing free open source software and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) commodity components.

Contents

Overview of voting systems

Voting systems across the United States garnered public and media attention during the 2000 United States presidential election - commonly referred to as "the year of the hanging chad" - after failing paper-based punch machines recorded 172,000 "mis-votes". After numerous recounts and the eventual interceding by the Supreme Court, jurisdictions across the country replaced manual voting machines with computerized systems. These systems have been reported as running "largely on 1990s computer designs" and are "now so antiquated (they are) in danger of breaking down". [3] [4] The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, recently published a report on the current state of crisis regarding America's elections, citing serious security and reliability flaws. While the report does not mention open source voting software, it does highlight the use of COTS components as an affordable alternative to proprietary hardware. [5] The cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, the latter under CAVO's guiding expertise, are planning on replacing their outdated systems with open source voting technology and COTS hardware, with plans for both systems to be up and running in time for the 2020 elections. [6] [7]

Founding and focus in California

CAVO was formed in December 2013 following the passing of legislation (SB360) penned by California Secretary of State Alex Padilla which paved the way for open source election systems in California. [8] Reinforcing the Help America Vote Act is an important area of CAVO's work, particularly in ensuring that all registered voters have the same opportunity for access and participation in elections. Recognizing the work by predecessor Open Voting Consortium (OVC), CAVO continues to work toward creating funding and resources for the certification and implementation of affordable and secure voting systems that are reliable, trustworthy, more easily auditable, and more convenient to use by voters of all abilities. OVC dissolved in 2011, and CAVO has now taken the lead on open source voting projects in San Francisco County and other counties throughout the state. [9] [10]

CAVO's input in New Hampshire

Most recently, New Hampshire Secretary of State William M. Gardner, directly and actively supported by CAVO, utilized open source software and COTS hardware during the 2014 State Primary and General election, reporting great success, particularly in regards to improved accessibility for voters with disabilities. [11] [12] As a result, open source voting systems will be used throughout the state of New Hampshire in the 2016 Presidential election. New Hampshire's open source voting software is called one4all and is based on the Prime III system developed by CAVO Advisory Board member Dr. Juan E. Gilbert. [13] [14]

Board of Directors, past and present

Members of CAVO's Board of Directors include Brian D. Newby, Executive Director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and Brian Fox, creator of Bash (Unix shell). Kammi Foote, elected Registrar of Voters for Inyo County and former President of CAVO, continues to advocate for voting systems that utilize open source software. [15] CAVO Secretary Brent Turner is known as a catalyst for the open source election reform movement, and contributed open source language to the 2016 California Democratic Party Platform. [16] Lawrence Rosen (attorney), a CAVO Advisory Board member, is the author of the Academic Free License and the Open Software License. Dr. Elizabeth Clarkson, a statistician at Wichita State University and a proponent of citizen-run exit polls and auditing voting systems for accuracy, [17] is also on CAVO's Advisory Board.

Related Research Articles

San Mateo County, California County in California, United States

San Mateo County, officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly City and San Mateo. San Mateo County is included in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA MSA, Silicon Valley, and is part of the San Francisco Bay Area, the nine counties bordering San Francisco Bay. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula. San Francisco International Airport is located in the northeastern area of the county and is approximately 7 miles south of the city and county limits of San Francisco, even though the airport itself is assigned a San Francisco postal address. The county's built-up areas are mostly suburban, and are home to several corporate campuses.

United States presidential primary Nominating process of candidates for United States presidential elections

The presidential primary elections and caucuses held in the various states, the District of Columbia, and territories of the United States form part of the nominating process of candidates for United States presidential elections. The United States Constitution has never specified the process; political parties have developed their own procedures over time. Some states hold only primary elections, some hold only caucuses, and others use a combination of both. These primaries and caucuses are staggered, generally beginning sometime in January or February, and ending about mid-June before the general election in November. State and local governments run the primary elections, while caucuses are private events that are directly run by the political parties themselves. A state's primary election or caucus is usually an indirect election: instead of voters directly selecting a particular person running for president, they determine the number of delegates each party's national convention will receive from their respective state. These delegates then in turn select their party's presidential nominee. The first state in the United States to hold its presidential primary was North Dakota in 1912, following on Oregon's successful implementation of its system in 1910.

Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold Election Systems, Inc. (DESI), was a subsidiary of Diebold that made and sold voting machines.

Electronic voting is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots.

Gavin Newsom 40th governor of California

Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician and businessman serving as the 40th governor of California since January 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California from 2011 to 2019 and as the 42nd mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011.

Black box voting signifies voting on voting machines which do not disclose how they operate such as with closed source or proprietary operations. If a voting machine does not provide a tangible record of individual votes cast then it can be described as black box voting.

Vote counting is the process of counting votes in an election. It can be done manually or by machines. In the United States, the compilation of election returns and validation of the outcome that forms the basis of the official results is called canvassing.

Brian Fox (computer programmer) American computer programmer

Brian Jhan Fox is an American computer programmer and free software advocate. He is the original author of the GNU Bash shell, which he announced as a beta in June 1989. He continued as the primary maintainer of bash until at least early 1993. Fox also built the first interactive online banking software in the U.S. for Wells Fargo in 1995, and he created an open source election system in 2008.

FairVote, formerly the Center for Voting and Democracy, is a 501(c)(3) organization that advocates electoral reform in the United States.

An open primary is a primary election that does not require voters to be affiliated with a political party in order to vote for partisan candidates. In a traditional open primary, voters may select one party's ballot and vote for that party's nomination. As in a closed primary, the highest voted candidate in each party then proceeds to the general election. In a nonpartisan blanket primary, all candidates appear on the same ballot and the two highest voted candidates proceed to the runoff election, regardless of party affiliation. The constitutionality of this system was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party in 2008, whereas a partisan blanket primary was previously ruled to be unconstitutional in 2000. The arguments for open primaries are that voters can make independent choices, building consensus that the electoral process is not splintered or undermined by the presence of multiple political parties.

The Open Voting Consortium (OVC) is a non-profit advocacy group dedicated to the development, maintenance, and delivery of trustable and open voting systems for use in public elections.

Electoral reform in California

Electoral reform in California refers to efforts to change election and voting laws in the U.S. state of California.

Ranked-choice voting in the United States Electoral system used in some cities and states

Ranked-choice voting (RCV) is a ranked voting system being used in some states and cities in the United States in which voters may prioritize (rank) their choice of candidates among many, and a procedure exists to count lower ranked candidates if and after higher ranked candidates have been eliminated, usually in a succession of counting rounds. In practice, there are several ways this can be implemented and variations exist; instant-runoff voting (IRV) and single transferable vote (STV) are the general types of ranked-choice voting systems used in the United States.

Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method. It uses a majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. In Australia, where it has seen the widest adoption, it is most commonly referred to as preferential voting ; in the United Kingdom, it is generally called alternative vote (AV); and it is known as ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the United States, whereas in some countries it is referred to as the single transferable vote – all these names are often used inconsistently.

2011 San Francisco mayoral election

The 2011 San Francisco mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2011, to elect the mayor of San Francisco. The incumbent Ed Lee, appointed to fill the vacant mayoral seat, succeeded in his bid to become the first elected Asian-American mayor of a major American city.

2016 California Democratic presidential primary

The 2016 California Democratic presidential primary was held on June 7 in the U.S. state of California as one of the Democratic Party's primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

2016 California Proposition 64 2016 California voter initiative that legalized recreational cannabis

The Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) was a 2016 voter initiative to legalize cannabis in California. The full name is the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act. The initiative passed with 57% voter approval and became law on November 9, 2016, leading to recreational cannabis sales in California by January 2018.

2018 San Francisco mayoral special election

A special election was held for Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco on June 5, 2018, to fill the remainder of the term of Ed Lee, who had died in office on December 12, 2017. Upon Lee's death, London Breed, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, became Acting Mayor of San Francisco, but a vote of six supervisors replaced Breed with Supervisor Mark Farrell. The mayoral election was held concurrently with the statewide direct primary election. In San Francisco, the election for the eighth district member of the board of supervisors was also on the ballot.

Matt Haney American politician

Matthew Craig Haney is an American politician from San Francisco currently serving as a member of the California State Assembly from the 17th district. A progressive member of the Democratic Party, Haney had represented District 6 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2019 to 2022 and previously served as a commissioner on the San Francisco Board of Education from 2013 to 2019.

Electronic voting in the United States Facet of American elections

Electronic voting in the United States involves several types of machines: touch screens for voters to mark choices, scanners to read paper ballots, scanners to verify signatures on envelopes of absentee ballots, and web servers to display tallies to the public. Aside from voting, there are also computer systems to maintain voter registrations and display these electoral rolls to polling place staff.

References

  1. ↑ Ibanez, Luis (5 Mar 2015). "Who's leading the charge for transparency in democratic elections?". Red Hat, Inc. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  2. ↑ Prandini, Marco (Summer 2012). "A Model for E-voting Systems Evaluation Based on International Standards: Definition and Experimental Validation". E-Service Journal. 8 (3): 42. doi:10.2979/eservicej.8.3.42. JSTOR   10.2979/eservicej.8.3.42.
  3. ↑ Pilkington, Ed (15 September 2015). "Hanging chad redux? US heading for 2000-style election catastrophe, report finds". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  4. ↑ Kiniry, Joe (27 April 2016). "The state of election technology is...improving". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  5. ↑ Norden, Lawrence (15 September 2015). "America's Voting Machines At Risk". Brennan Center for Justice. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  6. ↑ Hickey, Kathleen (2 June 2016). "San Francisco funds open source voting". Government Computer News. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  7. ↑ Fried, Jason (23 October 2015). "Study on Open Source Voting Systems: Final Report". San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  8. ↑ Padilla, Alex (5 October 2013). "SB-360 - Certification of Voting Systems". California Legislative Information. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Sabatini, Joshua (26 October 2015). "San Francisco could lead on open source voting". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  10. ↑ Goldberg, Ted (9 February 2016). "S.F. Officials Push for Adoption of Pioneering Open-Source Voting System". KQED News. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  11. ↑ Gardner, William M. (13 May 2016). "one4all, New Hampshire's Open Source Accessible Voting System" (PDF). New Hampshire Department of State. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  12. ↑ Ganley, Rick (8 February 2016). "Tablet-Based Ballot System for Blind Voters to Debut During N.H. Primary". New Hampshire Public Radio. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  13. ↑ Gilbert, Juan E. (2 May 2016). "How universal design can help every voter cast a ballot". The Conversation. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  14. ↑ "Technology pioneered by Dr. Juan Gilbert provides improved access for disabled voters". University of Florida College of Computer & Information Science & Engineering. 4 December 2014. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  15. ↑ Babe, Ann (6 February 2015). "Can Open-Source Voting Tech Fix The U.S. Elections System?". Forbes. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  16. ↑ Burton, John (28 February 2016). "2016 Platform: Political Reform". California Democratic Party. Archived from the original on 18 May 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  17. ↑ Lefler, Dion (2 August 2016). "WSU expert runs exit poll as suspicions linger over voting machines". The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved 27 November 2016– via kansas.com.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.