Transcript IEEE P1622 Meeting October 24-25, 2011 Overview of IEEE P1622 Draft Standard for Electronic Distribution of Blank Ballots for Voting Systems John P.

IEEE P1622 Meeting
October 24-25, 2011
Overview of IEEE P1622 Draft Standard for
Electronic Distribution of Blank Ballots for
Voting Systems
John P. Wack
National Institute of Standards and Technology
http://vote.nist.gov
IEEE P1622 Meeting, Oct 2011
Outline
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P1622 Use case rationale.
FVAP’s requirements for 2012 elections.
Overview of the standard.
Review process.
Comments received.
Remaining issues.
IEEE P1622 Meeting, Oct 2011
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Terms Used…
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BBD – blank ballot distribution
BDS – ballot delivery system
EAC – Election Assistance Commission
EMS – election management system
EO – election official
FVAP – Federal Voting Assistance Program
MOVE Act - Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act
PAR – Project Authorization Request
TGDC – Technical Guidelines Development Committee
UOCAVA - Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act
VIP – PEW’s Voting Information Project
VRDB – voter registration DB
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FVAP Requirements
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FVAP intention to fund states via grants to develop blank ballot
delivery systems in time for 2012 elections:
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UOCAVA voters will print paper ballots.
Ballots can be pre-formatted or built dynamically.
EAC Roadmap Fall 2011:
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For electronic transmission of blank ballots to be successful, they
should be implemented in a manner that allows multiple states to
participate. To assist in this the TGDC, with technical support from
NIST, will develop common data format specifications for ballots
and ballot definition that can be used by FVAP and the states. FVAP
is also planning on assisting States in 2010 with data conversion
services and tools to Common Data Formats.
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P1622 Use Case Rationale
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At Feb 2011 P1622 meeting, decision made to
develop use cases for slices of election data.
Use cases include:
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Overview of data involved.
How used.
Associated schemas.
Combination of all use cases will comprise
final comprehensive standard.
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P1622 BBD Standard Scope
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Feb 2011 meeting, P1622 voted to focus on first standard to
support FVAP in blank ballot delivery for UOCAVA voters.
Involved re-scoping PAR to match scope of standard:
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Involves date export formats for:
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This standard specifies XML-based electronic data interchange formats for
blank ballot distribution, primarily to satisfy the needs of the UOCAVA and
MOVE Acts….This scope does not include return of cast ballots by electronic
means.
UOCAVA voter information from voter registration databases.
Ballot information from election management systems.
Information required to track voted ballots.
After BBD standard is final, PAR will be re-scoped to original.
IEEE P1622 Meeting, Oct 2011
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Overview of Standard
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Use case format.
Main scenario.
Schemas involved.
The SEAL structure.
Example files.
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Use Case Format
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The standard started out as a use case.
IEEE has a style for the standard that mandates
certain clauses and material.
As a result, we have a standard that retains some
aspects of the use case format, e.g.,
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Actors, stakeholders.
Assumption, pre-conditions.
Main scenario.
These clauses likely not needed in final,
comprehensive standard.
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Main Scenario
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EO’s build EML 505 files containing:
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Precinct information.
Associated candidate information.
Contest information.
Possible pointers to external ballots.
505 can be built from VRDB and EMS
exports, or from a VIP feed file.
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Main Scenario (cont)
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Given a precinct as input, a BDS can find and
present an associated ballot:
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A generic ballot can be built from the 505.
Or, the 505 can point to pre-built ballots, e.g., PDF
ballots
Voter downloads the presented ballot from
the BDS, prints it, and returns the marked
ballot via postal mail.
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Main Scenario (cont)
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BDS can send an EML 470 message to
precinct that a voter has downloaded a ballot.
Precinct, upon receiving the ballot, can update
the BDS with received ballot status via EML
330 message.
Voter can be notified of received ballot status,
as required by MOVE Act.
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The EML 505
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Created to make it easier for states to start using EML
schemas.
Combines elements from other schemas:
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EML 110 Election Event: structures dealing with information
about the elections.
EML 230 Candidate List: structures for contests and
candidates.
EML 410 Ballot List: structures for the ballots.
A basic 505 file can be created from a VIP feed file via
an XSLT transform.
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The EMLs 330 and 470
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Used to facilitate ballot tracking as required in MOVE
Act.
EML 330 used for VRDB export:
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Can be loaded with UOCAVA voters and sent to a BDS.
Can also include ballot status, i.e., accepted, rejected.
EML 470 used for ballot tracking:
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Can be sent from a BDS when voter downloads a ballot, sets
up a ‘channel’ for the voter.
When precinct receives the ballot, precinct can respond with
the 330 using the channel.
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The SEAL Structure
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An EML element for holding digital
signatures, i.e., for signing the EML file.
Based on W3C guidance.
The Manifest element can hold hash of
objects referenced in <URL> element,
e.g., a PDF ballot.
Conformance requires using SEAL.
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Example files
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Example files included to show
structures within EMLs 110, 230, 330,
470, 505, and SEAL structure.
Must download EMLv7 files, then unpack
example files within EML directory.
EMLv7 available from OASIS, example
files available from IEEE P1622 site.
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Review Process
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Standard released for balloting Aug 17:
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50 in ballot pool eligible to vote.
39 affirmative votes.
6 negative w/comments, 2 abstain.
86% affirmative.
Released for recirculation Sep 30.
Released for 2nd recirculation Oct 17.
Also, given to IEEE’s RevCom Oct 17.
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Comments Received
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Adherence to IEEE Standards Style
Guide.
Inconsistency with PAR.
Persistence of URLs for EML, examples.
Concerns over security (out of scope).
Concerns over normative language.
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Responses
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Adhered carefully to IEEE style guidance.
Ensured conformance to PAR.
Clarified definitions, language, structure.
Added a conformance section and clarified
requirement statements.
Created URLs intended to be persistent.
Added security considerations section.
Added additional requirements for the SEAL structure
and return postal address.
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Issues
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Concern over security of Internet voting
possibly prompting many comments
over security.
More documentation and worked
examples needed.
Hopeful that NIST can work with FVAP’s
planned Data Migration Tool
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Discussion
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