Support for a Support for a Common Data Exchange FormatCommon Data Exchange Format

Election Systems & SoftwareElection Systems & SoftwareIEEE Standards Working Group P1622

Voting Systems Electronic Data Interchange

February 8 – 9, 2011Election Assistance Commission Office, Washington D.C.

Current State – Current State – within the United Stateswithin the United States

Election Systems are certified as a whole◦ Most locales require the use of “certified” systems◦ Exchanges with the system are constructed for efficiency

of the system◦ Hybrid solutions (combining pieces of different systems)

are non-certifiedES&S system allows for data import from external

systems for inputs to the election definition◦ Excel, CDF, etc.

ES&S system allows for external feeds ◦ unique to the local jurisdictions and their associated

publication needs◦ XML construct to allow ease of use

Current State – Current State – InternationalInternational

ES&S has provided versions of its systems with EML imports and exports to its international clients

Support for partial set of EML capabilities◦Ballot content import to tabulation system

◦ which race, candidates are on a given ballot style◦ Vote for how many◦ Ballot style to voting location

◦Cast Vote records◦ which choices were made on a given ballot

◦Vote Summary records◦ at the various reporting levels

Support for a Common StandardSupport for a Common Standard

Due to the certification process, it is preferable to have one format for data interchange into or out from the system

Any voting system vendor doing business in the United Kingdom or European Union needs to support EML

EML is heading toward the ISO certification process to be recognized as the data interchange standard for election data

It is better to ensure this International Standard contains the features and content that we desire for data exchange in the United States than to build a one-off