Our Mission
OVC will not run your elections for you. OVC will provide jurisdictions with tools enabling them to run their own elections in a secure, verifiable, accessible, and transparent manner -- very affordable, too. The People will own the hardware. The People will own the software. Together, we will exemplify the concept of Self Governance.We need this new approach to correct a technically flawed voting system that weakens democracy.
The California Secretary of State's investigation amounts to a scathing indictment of the whole system.
We 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,
Current Efforts
It will literally take millions of dollars to develop and certify hardware that could be used with our open source software. We need major funding support or a major hardware partner to accomplish this.
Most of OVC's work has been done by volunteers. In order to complete this work at the high standard of quality demanded by the application, we will need paid professional staff.
Until we can get the necessary backing, we will continue to discuss our potential solution with jurisdictions but do not expect them to be paying for memberships.
Therefore, OVC will continue as a purely voluntary effort.
If you can help in any of these three areas, please feel free to contact us:
- Finding a hardware partner (or partners)
- Reaching out to jurisdictions
- Locate a source (or sources) for major funding
We thank everyone who has contributed to this effort so far.
Recent News & Events
California takes up transparency, open source voting
2006.02.16 7:00
by Jay Lyman
http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/02/15/2210232
Calif. State Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach) knows about making government and technology more open. She also knows her brother, a US Navy programmer, could code a program to rig an election in 20 minutes.
After putting the Golden State's legislation, public records, legislator records, and more online in 1993, Bowen is now looking to make transparency in voting front and center in her campaign for Calif. Secretary of State. Bowen, who chairs the state's Election Committee, is overseeing hearings this month on whether the state should move toward using electronic voting systems that rely on open source software, as well as how voting systems are tested and certified. The hearings have featured electronic voting and open source experts, including Red Hat Vice President of Corporate Development Michael Evans, and highlight whether and how the public can see the code and the process of voting.
Diebold CEO Reviews Fate of e-Voting Unit
By M.R. KROPKO AP Business Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
NORTH CANTON, Ohio — Diebold Inc.'s new chief executive, determined to cut $100 million in costs over three years, said he is reviewing whether the company should continue investing in its embattled electronic voting business.
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CEO Thomas Swidarski insisted in an Associated Press interview that he feels good about the performance of the e-voting operations, even as some shareholders and computer experts complain that Diebold touch-screen voting machines have had a history of hardware and software woes.
"There's pieces and aspects of each of our businesses that I'm going to be looking at with a very critical eye in terms of what the future holds for us," Swidarski said in his first media interview since taking over in December the company best known for its automatic teller machines and security systems.
Open Voting Consortium and Clean Money Campaign Team Up for Open House at California Democratic Party Retreat in Manhattan Beach
Mimi Kennedy makes a serious point at the Open Voting and Clean Money Open House
The Open Voting Consortium and California Clean Money campaign sponsored a highly successful Open House acquainting rank and file California Democrats with Open Voting and consolidating support for the already well known Clean Money issue. The event was held at the Manhattan Beach Marriot where the California Democratic Party held its Executive Committee meeting on January 27th and 28th.
Alan Dechert introduced the crowd to Open Voting and also did a great warm up for Ms. Bowen, who is running for secretary of State. Alan noted that legislation related to Open Voting is shaping up, but there is no bill number as yet. Eric Tang of the California Clean Money campaign closed out the evening by pointing out that elected officials aren’t beholden to rich interests for campaign funds that many of our other problems like health care will be more likely to be less intractable. He urged folks to call their Assembly members to help pass AB-583, which is scheduled for a vote any day. Learn more about the Clean Money campaign at www.caclean.org.
Maryland Official Wants Details About California Voting Machine Problems
Annapolis (AP) - Maryland's top elections official is monitoring concerns about Diebold electronic voting machines used in another state.
State elections administrator Linda Lamone wrote a letter to Diebold's top executive last month after California's secretary of state declared that some of that state's voting machines were susceptible to errors and would not be certified.
Lamone tells The (Baltimore) Sun that she sent the letter so that Maryland stays updated on tests being done on the California machines. But she says the similar Diebold touch-screen machines used in Maryland are secure and that she expects this year's elections to go smoothly.
Diebold fate hangs on whether its voting software can be fixed
By Ian Hoffman
Software files have company in double bind with state, feds
For more than two years, Diebold Election Systems Inc. has hit one political or technical snag after another trying to reap more than $40 million in voting-machine sales in California.
Now only a collection of tiny software files on Diebold's latest voting machines stand in the way of those revenues and more. Last summer, a Finnish computer expert using an agricultural device found he could rig the votes stored on Diebold's memory cards and rewrite one of those files to cover his tracks.
The revelation posed a double problem for Diebold: Not only could its optical-scanning voting machines be hacked, but state and federal rules for more than a year have forbidden those files in voting machines.
Most of State's Vote Machines Not Ready for Primary Time
Most of State's Vote Machines Not Ready for Primary Time
# Electronic devices in 53 counties, including O.C., are still not certified for use in the June primary.
By Jean O. Pasco, Times Staff Writer
Only five of California's 58 counties have electronic voting systems ready for the June primary, state election officials told a state Senate committee hearing Wednesday.
"While we're moving as fast as possible, much of the time needed for each system is out of our control," said Bill Wood, undersecretary of state.
To be ready by June, manufacturers must apply for state certification by Jan. 31, he said. Officials have not said what will happen to counties whose systems are not certified.
Officials assess e-voting glitches
Confidence in electronic systems may be wavering
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER
SACRAMENTO — As virtually every county in California scrambles for new voting machinery to use in the June elections, the last thing elections officials want to talk about is flaws.
But the warts were on parade Wednesday:
-Sequoia Voting Systems' computers don't reliably add in certain rare primary votes.
-Election Systems & Software's computers sometimes count more ballots than voters and can record the wrong choice for voters with long fingernails.
-Optical scanners made by Diebold Election Systems can be hacked (and so possibly can scanners sold by other vendors.)
Feed the OVC blogging machine - send us bloggable material!
Thanks for checking out the OVC blog. We're just getting up and running here, but we appreciate your interest. If you have any good items to blog about, please send them to us and we'll post them!
If you are interested in writing for the OVC blog, register for an account and then jot us a quick note letting us know who you are, and we'll get your account ready for blogging.
Pacific Research Institute ranks speed ahead of accuracy in tallying people's votes
From: Senator Debra Bowen's Office
Contact: Evan Goldberg (916) 651-4028
SACRAMENTO – Despite the fact that 52% of the people in America aren’t confident that their votes are being accurately counted, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) has come out and blasted the use of an accessible voter-verified paper audit trail (AVVPAT) in California elections.
“It takes the term ‘tone deaf’ to a whole new level,” said Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach), the chairwoman of the Senate Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee. “Given the scandals involving electronic voting machines and the rising number of California voters who are losing faith in the system, how anyone can come out and say with a straight face, ‘Let’s trust the voting machine vendors, they know what they’re doing’ is beyond me.”
Paper trail law for e-voting has fans, foes
John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
California will require all electronic voting machines to produce a printed record of votes in the June election, but there are still concerns that the expensive overhaul may cause more problems than it solves.
The Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank, has called the paper trail requirement one of the state's top 10 policy blunders of 2005. The new law "may force California to relive the mistakes of America's punch-card voting past,'' the group said, and will make voting "increasingly difficult and negate the original virtues of e-voting: speed, cost-savings and efficiency.''
