A Walk in the Clouds- The Advantages of AWS GovCloud for VRS
In a mission-critical industry like elections, where security and performance are of utmost importance, AWS GovCloud is one of the most cost-effective, secure hosting options available.
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10, 2018
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09, 2018
8 Ways GIS Prevents Districting Distress
8 Ways GIS Prevents Districting Distress Imagine discovering that a city council member’s home address was listed in the wrong district, and she has been serving the wrong constituents for years. Or, a tight race is decided by 57 votes...and an investigation reveals that 150 new addresses were accidentally incorrectly assigned to that jurisdiction when [...]
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08, 2018
Onwrd Podcast: Secure Elections with Jeffrey Stern of Votem
Listen to the podcast! What are the headwinds and tailwinds to the work Votem is doing? Why is Votem focused on secure and accessible voting? How is Votem improving voting for voters? election officials? What is the impact and feedback from elections run Votem's platform? This podcast features Jeffrey Stern of Votem, [...]
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07, 2018
Vote of Confidence: The Problem with Paper
All voting systems should be held to the highest possible standard. However, there is a discrepancy in the standards applied to paper and electronic systems. While paper is familiar and tangible, paper’s proponents promote its use and advantages without carefully considering its flaws and limitations, despite applying the most rigorous scrutiny to electronic systems without [...]
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07, 2018
Vote of Confidence: Motivations and Purpose for Technology in Elections
Motivations Every eligible individual should be able to actively participate in democracy by easily and safely voting when, how, and where they want. Democratic institutions generally subscribe to this philosophy, yet do little to implement it in practice. The guiding philosophy follows: “We should be guided by the dynamics of the voting public we serve — seniors [...]
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05, 2018
Vote of Confidence: Coercion in Context
Coercion in Context The risk of voter coercion (voter interference, bribery, vote selling) exists when a voter can demonstrate how they have voted in a given election. It’s a difficult risk to mitigate because robust election systems have to reconcile privacy and security requirements that both guarantee the correctness of election results and the [...]
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05, 2018
Vote of Confidence: A Blackbox Democracy
Vote of Confidence: A Black Box Democracy A “black box” is, in technological terms, a system that can only be viewed by its inputs and outputs. The inner-workings of a black box remain a mystery to any outside observer. In the world of voting, Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines are often referred [...]
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04, 2018
Vote of Confidence: Polling Place Tragedies
Vote of Confidence: Polling Places Tragedies Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people in Afghanistan who were senselessly killed as they stood in line to register to vote. It is our sincere hope that our work at Votem will help create a future where is mass violence against voters is [...]
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04, 2018
Vote of Confidence: Voting for the Ages
Vote of Confidence: Voting for the Ages This past Tuesday, a bill was submitted to the DC Council that would lower the District’s voting age in all elections to 16. If passed, the bill would allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in everything from local to federal contests. With Congress having the final [...]
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04, 2018
Vote of Confidence: Who Paper Hurts the Most
Vote of Confidence: Who Paper Hurts the Most Last week, we explored why the arguments for paper-based voting systems don’t stand up as well as they may seem. As previously stated in this series, paper certainly resolves some of the most pressing issues with today’s outdated voting machines but a regression to exclusively [...]
