RE: [election-services] EML : USA INTEROP DEMO

John

Firstly my very best wishes to you for the New Year with many hopes that 2008 might provide more encouragement for the future implementation of EML following all of the hard work that we have all, and especially you, been involved in for many previous years.

I apologise for that I have joined this debate rather belatedly but can assure you that I have been following the correspondence etc with a great deal of interest.

Regretfully I agree with both David and Peter and that it really looks like this is not the time to face the US market. We all know that all those involved in elections is the States, at this time, will have one election paramount on their minds and their slowness in responding to any requests from us and Dee emphasizes this.

Additionally we need to remember that our prime intention is to influence NIST and their lack of real interest at this time gives little encouragement.

Like you I was hoping that this might be a way to move forward but with just a month to go and still no real indication of likely costs, let alone possible advantages, leaves me convinced that we need to think again.

We need to ensure that anything we do is really effective and well thought out and I think, like Peter, that time is now against us. Lets start thinking about how we might do something later in the year and make it something that will make US election officials sit up and think!

Best wishes

Roy Hill

Director Research and Innovation

OPT2VOTE Ltd

All opinions expressed are my own.

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From: John Borras [mailto:johnaborras@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 31 December 2007 09:24
To: EML TC; Lori Steele; Dee Schur
Cc: Stuart Harrington
Subject: [election-services] EML : USA INTEROP DEMO

Despite the valiant efforts of Dee we still have had no response from the NASED conference organisers to our request to run the Demo at their event. So we are reaching a crunch point when we will need to decide what to do, not least because most of us will have flights and hotels to book. I have provisionally set a telecon to discuss all this next Friday 4th Jan but it would be useful to get some early thoughts from you before then if possible. Depending on views we can go ahead with the telecon or cancel it.

Just to remind you all, NASS (Nat Assoc of State Senators) and NASED (Nat Assoc of State Election Directors) hold a joint event but run separate conferences. Delegates intermingle between sessions and there is a joint session on the last day. NASS have a demo area and have offered us a slot there to run the Demo but no conference presentation time. NASED have not offered anything, yet.

It seems to me we have the following options:

1. Abandon the demo at this event and look for other opportunities. Both groups have summer conferences so we could postpone until then or look for other opportunities in the Spring.

2. Go ahead with the NASS offering albeit it's not the best group of delegates to attract, and hence might not get a lot of interest, although we might get some NASED people drifting in. Also we would not be able to present the results to the conference but can post them on websites afterwards.

3. Forget the whole idea.

Dee no doubt will continue to press NASED but she must give them an ultimatum very soon.

I've given you my opinions on this demo in previous e-mails, ie we need maximum preparation time and commitment for this one in view of the complexities required. I do not believe we should cut corners and do a last minute rush job. So if we cannot do the proper planning and preparation then we should not go ahead.

Your views on all of this would be appreciated and also whether the telecon on Friday is necessary.

Wishing you all a very happy and successful New Year.

Regards
John

M. +44 (0)7976 157745
Skype: gov3john

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