Voting System Project

[Madison Rapelyea]

Throughfield research and coalition building, the RR/CC has pioneered a voter-centered approach to voting system design and development. Voting.REIMAGINED.An innovative voter-centered approach to voting for Los Angeles CountyThe Voting Solutions for All People (VSAP) was developed by the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) in 2009 to address an aging voting system and an increasingly large and complex electorate. The project seeks a collaborative approach to voting system design that will put voters at the center and maximize stakeholder participation.

If you would like more information about the certification process, please read Chapter 4 and 5 of the Testing and Certification Program Manual. Please contact Jerome Lovato ([email protected]) for additional information about a particular voting system.

The UCLA Voting Rights Project is the flagship project of the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute aimed at creating an accessible and equitable system of voting for all Americans through impact litigation, research, and clinical education to expand access to the ballot box.

This notice letter follows a similar WVRA lawsuit settled by Franklin County in 2022, which acknowledged the existence of polarized voting under the same electoral system and switched to district-based elections under the settlement. Recently, a federal court has recognized polarized voting within Franklin County, underscoring the need for electoral reform.

Once the notice is filed, the Franklin County PUD will have 90 days to respond. Should the response be unsatisfactory, the UCLA Voting Rights Project is prepared to take further legal action to ensure equitable representation for all residents of Franklin County.

The UCLA Voting Rights Project is the marquee advocacy project of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is focused on voting rights litigation, research, policy, and training. The UCLA Voting Rights Project addresses overlooked yet monumental gaps in the field of voting rights. The UCLA Voting Rights Project tackles questions of how to train young lawyers and researchers, support the development of new legal and methodological theories for voting rights cases, and advance policy work, to ensure that there will be a new generation of leaders who are pursuing efforts to guarantee all citizens have equal and fair access to our democracy. The project was founded by Chad W. Dunn, J.D., and Matt Barreto, Ph.D. The UCLA Voting Rights Project is located within the Luskin School of Public Affairs.

The Virginia Department of Elections has remained vigilant concerning the potential threats against our election infrastructure, and continues to work with our local, state, and federal partners to ensure the safety and security of our electoral process. The Department of Homeland Security and the Virginia Information Technologies Agency continues to provide various cyber services to our department, and any identified issues will be addressed appropriately.

Pursuant to Va. Code 24.2-671.2, risk-limiting audits shall be conducted annually by the local electoral boards and general registrars under the supervision of the Department and in accordance with the procedures prescribed by the State Board of Elections. A risk-limiting audit is a type of post-election audit that utilizes statistical methods and a manual review of paper ballots to confirm that the electronic voting system accurately reported the correct outcome of an election. More information can be found here.

The Virginia Department of Elections is making investments that will provide a more sustainable approach to improving election security in the Commonwealth. Virginia is using funds from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grant to help strengthen its election infrastructure.

Funds have been used for initiatives such as increasing cyber security training, increasing security for elections data, and establishing more robust certification standards for voting equipment. Agencies such as the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) and the Center for Internet Security (CIS) have been assisted by providing information about best practices and security standards. The Department also secured a project team that put into place a security and continuity of operations plan, and helped to manage program costs.

We are constantly reviewing and updating our website to reflect the most up-to-date language translations and elections information. If you discover an issue with translations or the links to our website, please let us know at in...@elections.virginia.gov

If you would like more information about the certification process, please read Chapter 4 and 5 of the Testing and Certification Program Manual. Please contact the EAC for additional information about a particular voting system.

The research described in this report was conducted to inform the project planning and execution of the Department of Defense's previously mandated electronic voting demonstration requirement. In the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, Congress eliminated this requirement and DoD is no longer exploring program implementation in this area. However, we believe the research and identification of outstanding questions are valuable and should be shared with the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) stakeholder community. Much of the supporting research may hold value for any future deliberations on the merits of remote electronic voting.

FVAP Final Report on the Electronic Voting Demonstration Project

This report explains the context of the research associated with the electronic voting demonstration project, and discusses the scope and purpose of the research, its limitations, conclusions and recommendations.

The FVAP Statement on Research Reports Related to UOCAVA System Testing explains the context of the research as it relates to FVAP's previously mandated electronic voting demonstration project. It discusses the scope and purpose of the research, its limitations, conclusions and recommendations.

This compiled document (15 MB) includes the "Voting System Testing Laboratory (VSTL) Functionality and Security and Testing" and "Penetration (PEN) Test of a Simulated Election" reports and all accompanying appendices. Due to its large file size, the individual reports and appendices are provided below.

This report describes a 2010 research effort to help inform FVAP's previously mandated electronic voting demonstration project. The VSTL testing was conducted to gauge the sufficiency of the Election Assistance Commission's Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act Pilot Program Testing Requirements and evaluate the quality of testing across VSTLs.

This report describes a 2011 research effort to help inform FVAP's previously mandated electronic voting demonstration project. It describes penetration testing of three voting systems. It is important to note the tests were only intended to serve as a proof-of-concept for the establishment of a model design and methodology for future penetration testing.

Staff conduct Acceptance Testing on the ballot tally equipment. Staff use test ballots with known results to test voting system hardware and ballot tally software. Ballots are scanned to create identical images; next, ballot images are inspected for readiness to be tallied.

We can draw upon a survey of election experts from the Electoral Integrity Project. This evaluates electoral processes in 164 individual countries against international standards and global norms for the appropriate conduct of elections.

In the most recent report (March 2018), Ireland is ranked in 27th position worldwide. Election experts assessed Ireland with a Perceptions of Electoral Integrity (PEI) score of 71 out of a maximum of 100. In contrast, Denmark is ranked first in the world with a PEI score of 87, while Ethiopia is ranked in 164th position with a score of 24.

Most significantly, Ireland is ranked 137th in the world for its voter registration processes, only mustering a PEI score of 32. The project reveals that three-quarters of the experts surveyed believe the Irish electoral register is inaccurate. Ireland is clustered together with Tanzania, Honduras, Ethiopia and Kenya towards the bottom of the class for the accuracy of its electoral registers. It is the worst performing OECD country in this regard.

There were also mixed results on political finance; many experts questioned whether Irish parties have equitable access to political donations and public funding. More than half of the experts do not believe that Irish parties publish transparent accounts.

The Electoral Commission would be a body whose entire focus would be overseeing the electoral process in Ireland. Much of the work is currently being done in scattergun fashion and to varying degrees of effectiveness across the system. However, an Electoral Commission would centralise, rationalise and focus on electoral procedures.

The Electoral Integrity Project (EIP) is led by Professor Pippa Norris and is based at the University of Sydney and Harvard University. The authors, Dr Theresa Reidy (University College Cork), Dr Fiona Buckley (University College Cork) and Professor David Farrell (University College Dublin), are members of the Ireland sub-national team of the Electoral Integrity Project and they received funding from the Irish Research Council for the Ireland audit. Further information about EIP is available here and data from the project may be sourced on Dataverse.

The Secure Elections Project is a national organization dedicated to advancing campaigns for bipartisan, pro-voter policies that modernize the voting system, making elections more efficient and secure.

In 2020, the uptick of bills introduced concerning elections was unmistakable. The Secure Elections Project typically saw a handful of election-focused legislation introduced in the 10 to 15 states they were working in; but in 2020, they saw over 100 bills pre-filed in Texas alone. An increased focus on elections in legislatures nationwide was evident and the Project needed to streamline their workflows to handle the volume, expand into other states, and collaborate with partners across the country.

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