Standards for eEnabled Elections: The work of the OASIS Election

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Standards for e-Enabled ElectionsThe work
of the OASIS Election Voter Services
Technical CommitteeJohn Borras Chair
Technical Committee
www.oasis-open.org
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OASIS Overview

• OASIS is a member consortium dedicated to
  building systems interoperability specifications
• Focus is on applications of structured
  information standards (eg XML, SGML)
• Members of OASIS are providers, users and
  specialists of standards-based technologies
• Include organisations, individuals, industry
  groups and governments
• More than 500 members
• International, Not-for-profit, Open, Independent
• Successful through industry and government wide
  collaboration

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The Challenge

• It is extremely unlikely that in the future
  elections will not have some e-enabled
  component(s). Its probably more a question of
  how many components and when they are introduced.
  But there are still many concerns to be allayed
  and a good deal of confidence that needs to be
  built before e-voting becomes the norm.
• Standards are the base on which to build future
  e-enabled elections that will be trustworthy,
  open and creditable.

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How to Facilitate Trust

• Since democracy was invented - people have sought
  to influence the result of a vote
• Our goal has been to reduce the risk that people
  will use the computer technology introduced into
  the process to cheat in new and interesting
  ways that were previously not available
• Also - computer technology should remove old ways
  of cheating and therefore minimize the risks that
  were there previously
• People should be able to transparently understand
  how the computer is handling their information
  and vote and have the means to independently
  verify that and hence be confident in and embrace
  the process.

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Essentials for Trusted Voting

• Appling the right principles can provide trusted
  verifiable voting processes
• Use of open public specifications is essential
• Independent verification and inspection is vital
• Each new situation brings its own challenges no
  one-size fits all / in-country localization
• Future broad availability of proven
  infrastructure
• Auditability within an Electoral Assurance
  Framework

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Auditability

• Transparency and Auditability are key Electoral
  requirements
• In e-voting systems in particular
• Using open interfaces can provide transparency of
  the whole voting process from the time the votes
  are cast to the final count.
• Full scale deployment of systems within an
  Electoral Assurance Framework incorporating
  standards provides
• Secrecy of the voter and their vote
• Transparency, verifiability and auditability of
  the whole election
• Comfort to the voter

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Electoral Assurance Framework

• Provides Accreditation, Assessment and
  Certification of electoral systems and services
• Builds trust by enabling public verifiability of
  the whole voting process
• Framework needs to be based on standards
• Provides standardised interface points where
  voting auditing processes can be independently
  assessed under the Assurance Framework

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Why Interface Standards?

• Need for information to be exchanged at several
  points in the election process
• Several parties involved
• Need to service dissimilar systems and equipment
• Interchange has to be an open and transparent
  process

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Targeted Processes

• Pre election
• Declaration of Elections
• Nominating Candidates
• Formulating Referendum
• Registration of Voters
• Election
• Casting of Votes
• Post election
• Declaring Results
• Audit
• Analysis

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Development of e-Voting Standards

• OASIS TC History
• Formed March 2001
• election.com, Accenture, Microsoft
• Chair since Aug 2001- UK Govt (currently
  Ministry of Justice)
• Committee Membership
• Governments, Corporations, Election Services
  providers, Academia

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Committee Charter

• The purpose of the Election and Voter Services
  Technical Committee is to develop a standard for
  the structured interchange of data among
  hardware, software, and service providers who
  engage in any aspect of providing election or
  voter services to public or private organizations.

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Deliverable EML (Election Markup Language)

• Process and Data Requirements
• Outlines voting processes
• Identifies data requirements
• Contains glossary of terms
• Addresses security issues
• XML Schemas
• Overview of approach taken in preparing the
  schemas
• 38 Individual schemas
• White Paper The Case for EML

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Security Issues

• Key security requirements addressed in EML
• are
• Identity authentication
• Right to vote authentication
• Vote sealing and non-repudiation of vote accuracy
• Vote confidentiality
• Voting Audit

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Current and Future TC work

• Version 5.0 approved in Dec 07
• Awaiting approval as an ISO Standard
• Compiling list of changes for inclusion in next
  version
• Provide more advice and guidance on
  implementation issues
• Assist with national localizations
• Develop compliance accreditation processes
• Ongoing enhancements to accommodate any changes
  in voting policies/legislation

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Take-up

• Council of Europe Ministerial directive Dec 04
  recommends EML as core technical standard
• USA Election Assistance Commissions (EAC) draft
  Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG)
  encourages suppliers to use EML
• UK election modernisation programme
• Flemish local elections
• Australian General Election
• California State Elections
• EU e-Poll project

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Summary

• Technology will not go away future generations
  will demand its use
• Standards are the base on which to build future
  e-enabled elections that will be trustworthy,
  open and creditable
• EML is the recognised international open standard
• With your help we can evolve it to meet the
  challenges ahead.

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John Borrasjohnaborras_at_yahoo.co.ukOASIS TC
www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abb
revelection