Monday, January 16, 2012
IEEE P1622 Election Data Standard published
After almost 9 months of work the long awaited IEEE P1622 first standard for US election information processing has been published as a joint work product between IEEE/OASIS/NIST/EAC and individual contributors. The formal announcement is provided below.
This sets the stage for a significant improvement in transparency and verification of election information in the US and beyond. Several election system manufacturers are now incorporating the specification and data standards into their product offerings. This also has the potential to save costs and improve accuracy and availability of election information prior to and during elections.
In addition with the success of this initial work there are now several other use cases that are being worked on as follow-on specifications for US elections information processing including election results reporting.
While all this is not exactly earth shattering, the long term implications for better elections and election processes are significant. My good friend Dick (Richard) Johnson is sadly no longer with us to witness this achievement, but he was one who advocated for this work within IEEE at an early stage. To see this finally achieved is therefore doubly rewarding.
On Thursday, January 12, 2012, the IEEE Standards Association published IEEE Std 1622-2011, the IEEE Standard
for Electronic Distribution of Blank Ballots for Voting Systems. This standard specifies electronic data interchange formats for blank ballot distribution, primarily to assist in satisfying the needs of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act.
Subsequent standards may address other requirements for electronic data interchange formats used by components of voting systems for exchange of electronic data. This scope does not include return of cast ballots by electronic means.
This standard is available at no charge from
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee/1622/download/1622-2011.pdf
This standard is made available for free under sponsorship of the IEEE Standards Association because of the IEEE's desire to support this work of national interest and at the specific request of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).
This sets the stage for a significant improvement in transparency and verification of election information in the US and beyond. Several election system manufacturers are now incorporating the specification and data standards into their product offerings. This also has the potential to save costs and improve accuracy and availability of election information prior to and during elections.
In addition with the success of this initial work there are now several other use cases that are being worked on as follow-on specifications for US elections information processing including election results reporting.
While all this is not exactly earth shattering, the long term implications for better elections and election processes are significant. My good friend Dick (Richard) Johnson is sadly no longer with us to witness this achievement, but he was one who advocated for this work within IEEE at an early stage. To see this finally achieved is therefore doubly rewarding.
On Thursday, January 12, 2012, the IEEE Standards Association published IEEE Std 1622-2011, the IEEE Standard
for Electronic Distribution of Blank Ballots for Voting Systems. This standard specifies electronic data interchange formats for blank ballot distribution, primarily to assist in satisfying the needs of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act.
Subsequent standards may address other requirements for electronic data interchange formats used by components of voting systems for exchange of electronic data. This scope does not include return of cast ballots by electronic means.
This standard is available at no charge from
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee/1622/download/1622-2011.pdf
This standard is made available for free under sponsorship of the IEEE Standards Association because of the IEEE's desire to support this work of national interest and at the specific request of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).
