[announce] OASIS Member News: First standards for network votingsystems rel eased for review

[Kerry Alexander <kerry@votehere.net>]

First standards for network voting systems released for review
VoteHere announces standards for qualifying remote voting technology

BELLEVUE, Wash. - Jan. 30, 2002 - VoteHere, the industry leader in secure
technology and software for electronic and online voting systems, announced
today that it has released a draft of voting system standards suitable for
voting on electronic network devices including wireless phones,
Internet-connected PCs, televisions, and ATM-style kiosks.  

Currently, Federal Election Commission (FEC) voting standards do not include
provisions for network voting systems outside the attended poll site
environment. These proposed Network Voting System Standards (NVSS) are meant
to assist the FEC and others as they look to adopt network voting standards.
They address general objectives and requirements for a network voting system
but do not attempt to prescribe "feature-level" requirements for specific
technologies. Rather, they define high level functional and performance
requirements for systems that transfer election data over a network. 

NVSS are based, in part, on the Voting System Standards produced by the
Federal Election Commission (FEC), on the findings and recommendations of
many of the recent studies on Internet Voting including the California Task
Force on Internet Voting, the CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project, the
NSF-sponsored National Workshop on Internet Voting, and on research efforts
at VoteHere.  The standards are currently open for comment and
collaboration, and are in review by election and technology experts.
 
"Innovations in voting system technology are critical factors in ensuring
the robustness of our elections process in the U.S.," says Ralph Munro,
longtime Secretary of State for Washington (1980 to 2001). "VoteHere should
be commended for taking the initiative to put together a document of this
caliber that will provide a foundation for evaluating these new
technologies."

Military voters are interested in using remote voting this fall. VoteHere
saw a need to establish guidelines that would provide a basis for evaluating
network voting technologies against a set of standards, which will protect
the integrity of the elections. These standards are focused on protecting
election integrity and privacy by auditing the election data in addition to
the usual audit of the election processes.

"The states and counties looking to participate in the fall remote military
voting pilot are interested in certification, so the need for these
standards exists today," says Eric Peterson, director of strategic
technology, VoteHere. "We are looking forward to working with other election
and technology experts to ensure any new system meets the four factors of
fairness, accuracy, privacy and proof that are critical to the integrity of
all elections."   

Mr. Peterson will be discussing voting system standards and certification
issues on January 31 at the Cal/Tech- MIT Workshop on Election Standards and
Technology (WEST) in Washington, D.C.  A copy of the complete standards
proposal can be found at http://www.votehere.net/nvss.  Comments to the
draft standards are encouraged through March 1, 2002 and should be sent to
nvss@votehere.net.

VoteHere's election technology currently supports the evolution from a
closed network system at polling places to a remote voting solution that can
run on network devices. The company has several patents pending on its
election technology and recently received NASED qualification for its first
electronic voting system for public elections in the U.S. This
software-based, touch-screen voting system, which runs on standard Compaq
PCs, is the first product of its kind to pass tests administered by
independent testing authorities designated by NASED, which evaluates
election systems against FEC voting standards. VoteHere's qualification
number is 011201-30033. 

About VoteHere
VoteHere, Inc. is a leading worldwide supplier of election technology
software and services, delivering electronic and online voting solutions to
meet the election needs of governments and private organizations.
VoteHere's systems are delivered and supported around the world by a team of
election experts and strategic partners such as Compaq Computer Corporation,
Cisco Systems and Entrust.  For more information, visit VoteHere's web site
at www.votehere.net. 


For more information, please contact Kerry Alexander, 425.739.2544 or e-mail
kerry@votehere.net