The 2013 Annual Elections Verification Conference Opens Tonight

If its Wednesday 13.March it must be Atlanta.  And that means the opening evening reception for the Elections Verification Network‘s 2013 Annual Conference.  We’re high on this gathering of elections officials, experts, academicians and advocates because it represents a unique interdisciplinary collaboration of technologists, policy wonks and legal experts, and even politicians all with a common goal: trustworthy elections.

The OSDV Foundation is proud to be a major sponsor of this event.  We do so because it is precisely these kinds of forums where discussions about innovation in HOW America votes take place and it represents a rich opportunity for collaboration, debate, education, and sharing.  We always learn much and share our own research and development efforts as directed by our stakeholders — those State and local elections officials who are the beneficiaries of our charitable work to bring increased accuracy, transparency, verification, and security (i.e., the 4 pillars of trustworthiness) to elections technology reform through education, research and development for elections technology innovation.

Below are my opening remarks to be delivered this evening or tomorrow morning, at the pleasure of the Planning Committee depending on how they slot the major sponsors opportunities to address the attendees.  We believe there are 3 points we wanted to get across in opening remarks: [1] why we support the EVN; [2] why there is a growing energy around increased election verification efforts, and [3] how the EVN can drive that movement forward…..

Greetings Attendees!

On behalf of the EVN Planning Committee and the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation I want to welcome everyone to the 2013 Elections Verification Network Annual Conference.  As a major conference supporter, the Planning Committee asked if I, on behalf of the OSDV Foundation, would take 3 minutes to share 3 things with you:

• 1^st, why the Foundation decided to help underwrite this Conference;
• 2^nd, why we believe there is a growing energy and excitement around election verification; and
• 3^rd, how the EVN can bring significant value to this growing movement

So, we decided to make a major commitment to underwriting and participating in this conference for two reasons:

1. We want to strengthen the work of this diverse group of stakeholders and do all that we can to fortify this gathering to make it the premier event of its kind; and
2. The work of the EVN is vital to our own mission because there are 4 pillars to trustworthy elections: Accuracy, Transparency, Verification, and Security, and the goals and objectives of these four elements require enormous input from all stakeholders.  The time to raise awareness, increase visibility, and catalyze participation is now, more than ever.  Which leads to point about the movement.

We believe the new energy and excitement being felt around election verification is due primarily to 4 developments, which when viewed in the aggregate, illustrates an emerging movement.  Let’s consider them quickly:

1. First, we’re witnessing an increasing number of elections officials considering “forklift upgrades” in their elections systems, which are driving public-government partnerships to explore and ideate on real innovation – the Travis County Star Project and the LA County’s VSAP come to mind as two showcase examples, which are, in turn, catalyzing downstream activities in smaller jurisdictions;
2. The FOCE conference in CA, backed by the James Irvine Foundation was a public coming out of sorts to convene technologists, policy experts, and advocates in a collaborative fashion;
3. The recent NIST Conferences have also raised the profile as a convener of all stakeholders in an interdisciplinary fashion; and finally,
4. The President’s recent SOTU speech and the resulting Bauer-Ginsberg Commission arguably will provide the highest level of visibility to date on the topic of improving access to voting.  And this plays into EVN’s goals and objectives for elections verification.  You see, while on its face the visible driver is fair access to the ballot, the underlying aspect soon to become visible is the reliability, security, and verifiability of the processes that make fair access possible.  And that leads to my final point this morning:

The EVN can bring significant value to this increased energy, excitement, and resulting movement if we can catalyze a cross pollination of ideas and rapidly increase awareness across the country.  In fact, we spend lots of time talking amongst ourselves.  It’s time to spread the word.  This is critical because while elections are highly decentralized, there are common principles that must be woven into the fabric of every process in every jurisdiction.  That said, we think spreading the word requires 3 objectives:

1. Maintaining intellectual honesty when discussing the complicated cocktail of technology, policy, and politics;
2. Sustaining a balanced approach of guarded optimism with an embracing of the potential for innovation; and
3. Encouraging a breadth of problem awareness, possible solutions, and pragmatism in their application, because one size will never fit all.

So, welcome again, and lets make the 2013 EVN Conference a change agent for raising awareness, increasing knowledge, and catalyzing a nationwide movement to adopt the agenda of elections verification.

Thanks again, and best wishes for a productive couple of days.