Copyright OASIS, 2001 OASIS Election & Voter Services Technical Committee John Borras Office of e-Envoy Cabinet Office UK Government May 2002

Copyright OASIS, 2001

OASIS

Election & Voter Services Technical Committee

John BorrasOffice of e-EnvoyCabinet OfficeUK Government May 2002


OASIS

OVERVIEW OF ORGANISATION

http://www.oasis-open.org


Overview

OASIS is a member-lead consortium dedicated to building systems interoperability specifications

We focus on industry applications of structured information standards, such as XML, SGML, and CGM.

Members of OASIS are providers, users and specialists of standards-based technologies and include organizations, government, individuals and industry groups. – ~200 organizational members, ~250 individual members

International, not-for-profit, open, independent Successful through industry-wide collaboration


OASIS technical agenda

The OASIS technical agenda is set by the members; bottom-up approach

Technical committees formed by the proposal of members

Attempt to cooperate and liaise with other standards organizations as much as possible


OASIS standards process

Standards are created under an open, democratic, vendor-neutral process– Any interested parties may participate, comment

– No one organization can dictate the standard

– Ensures that standards meet everyone’s needs, not just largest players’

Open to all interested parties All discussion open to public comment Resulting work is guaranteed to be representative

of the industry as a whole, not just any one vendor’s view


Progression of OASIS technical work

1. Any three OASIS members propose creation of a technical committee (TC)

2. Existing technical work submitted to TC; or TC starts work at the beginning

3. TC conducts and completes technical work; open and publicly viewable

4. TC votes to approve work as an OASIS Committee Specification

5. TC votes to submit the Committee Specification to OASIS membership for consideration

6. OASIS membership reviews, approves the Committee Specification as an OASIS Standard


E&VS Technical Committee

Overview & Progress

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/election


History

• Formed March 2001– election.com, Accenture, Microsoft

• Inaugural Meeting May 2001

• Chairmanship changed August 2001

• Chair: Anwar Choudhury, UK Office of E-Envoy

• Monthly meetings and workshops to date– Teleconference and face-to-face


Committee Membership

• Governments– UK, USA, Italy, France, Australia, NZ– European Parliament

• Corporations• Election service providers• Open source groups• Media• Election reform and watchdog groups


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. The services performed for such elections include but are not limited to voter role/membership maintenance (new voter registration, membership and dues collection, change of address tracking, etc.), citizen/membership credentialing, redistricting, requests for absentee/expatriate ballots, election calendaring, logistics management (polling place management), election notification, ballot delivery and tabulation, election results reporting and demographics.”


Deliverables

Election Markup Language (EML) Data interchange standards to support

voting processes Defined as XML schemas

Facilitate all aspects of election and voter services, public and private

Sanctioned through OASIS


Why Interchange Standards?

• Need for information to be exchanged at several points in the election process

• Several parties involved

• Need to service dissimilar systems and equipment

• Open process


Why XML?

• Widely accepted open standard

• Ability to support disparate systems

• Text based

• Easy to understand and implement

• Extensible

• International


Voting Processes and Data Requirements Document

• Outlines voting processes

• Identifies data requirements

• Identifies applications

• Identifies audit points

• Contains glossary of terms

• Addresses security issues


XML Schemas Documents

• Overview of approach taken in preparing the schemas, eg structure, conventions, Namespaces

• Links to external schemas, eg XML Signature, xNAL, Timestamp

• 17 Individual schemas


Scenarios

• Examples of how schemas can be used in specific situations, eg National elections, local elections, referendum, Annual General Meetings, favourite pop star, etc

• Country specific to reflect national rules

• Reflect different voting regimes, eg First Past Post, Preferential, etc


Targeted Services

Pre electionElection

Candidates

Voters

ElectionVoting

Post electionResults

Audit

Analysis


CANDIDATES

VOTERS

Candidate Nomination Response Candidate Nomination

NominationProcess

Decision

AcceptedNomineesRepository

Candidate List

Register Voter

communicatewith v oter

Voter Registration

General VotersData

Repository

Other - VotersRepository

Comm with Oher Repository

Election List

Eligible VotersRepository f orthis Election

Change ofAddress or

OtherRepository

ElectionProcesse

s

VotesRepository

Count Votes

RESULT

Analy se Votes/Results

VOTING

RESULTS

Election

CANDIDATES

VOTERS

VOTING

RESULTS

AUDIT

ELECTION

Audit

AUDIT

Scrutiny


510 - Count / Result

330 - Election List230 - Candidate List

ElectronicBallot

VoteCasting

ReportAnalysis

460 - Votes

210 - Nominations

CandidatesDB

220 - Response320 - Inter DB

310 -Voter Registration

Voter DB Other DB

110 - Election Event

HelpDesk

Admin

Voter ChannelGateway

Postal /PaperBallot

PhysicalGateway

CANDIDATES

VOTERS

VOTING

RESULTS

AUDIT

ELECTION

340 - Polling Information

350 - Generic

360 - Channel Options

Counting System

DemographicInformation

Audit

ScrutinyResult

......

......

Distribution System


Security

Key security requirements are:

Identity authentication

Right to vote authentication

Vote sealing and non-repudiation of vote accuracy

Vote confidentiality

Voting Audit


Milestones

• EML version 1 agreed by TC - May 2002– Voting Process Document

– 17 XML schemas

• Version 2 underway

• Testing / validation - on going

• OASIS ratification - End 2002?

• Future - maintenance / enhancements


Future work

• Future versions to include features not addressed or missed in Version I

• Wider participation by other Governments and suppliers

• Accommodate other election systems

• Ongoing enhancements and review


Thank you for your attention

Any Questions?

[email protected] no. +44 (0)20 7276 3101

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/election