Uncounted - The New Math of American Elections

Missing ballots are a major concern for manipulating elections.  The TruVote solution is discussed as a solution in the new Uncounted DVD.  Excerpts from the DVD highlighting TruVote are available here.  Click on the image.

TRANSPARENT AND ACCURATE ELECTIONS
TruVote provides voting systems for open, transparent and accurate elections with audit capability.  The TruVote system implements the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail ((VVPAT) as defined in the 2005 Voting System Guidelines and meets the requirements of Voter Verified Paper Ballots in proposed legislation such as H.R. 811 (The Holt Bill).   With a voter verified paper ballot, the role of a touch- screen voting machine is enhanced with the focus of the voting machine which assists the voter in preparing a printed ballot which is reviewed and accepted by the voter and certified by the system as the legal record of the vote.  An electronic image of the voter's legal ballot is also stored in the voting machine for fast and accurate tallies.

ELECTION AUDITS
Voting accuracy is insured by the use of audits which compare the legal paper record of the vote with the electronic image. Audits are fast, accurate and cost effective.

To understand how an election can be stolen if voter verified paper ballots are not used, go to this video on YouTube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNYA5ggwG84

Open Source

Open Source is an important consideration for transparent, secure and accurate elections.  The Technical Guidelines Development Committee of the EAC has proposed an important process of providing open source for voting system software but not requiring open source for commercial software such as the operating system or data base management system.  TruVote's discussion can be found here.

Voting System Security

To provide for open, accurate and transparent elections, security must be designed and built into the entire system.  Some details of the TruVote System are provide in this document.  Typical of an approach to providing election security is a report provided by the Information Technology and Innovation Technology Foundation and is available at http://www.innovationpolicy.org/index.php?id=79.  This is an excellent description of the history and security election systems.  The report suggests the "voter verified paper trail" by itself is not a solution to election security.  A complete solution with end to end accountability and audit needs to be coupled with the voter approving the paper copy of their ballot which becomes a legal document as it is endorsed by the voter.  TruVote provides a solution to the recommendations of the report.  Refer to the video on the TruVote system to understand how the solution works. 

Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

The Election Assistance Commission has release the new proposed guidelines for voting systems. These guidelines have an excellent emphasis on security and providing a complete solution to voting systems.  The guidelines are currently in the review process. A copy of the guidelines is available on the EAC web site http://www.eac.gov/vvsg   The TruVote system meets these guidelines.