Copyright OASIS, 2001 OASIS Election & Voter Services Technical Committee John Borras Office of e-Envoy Cabinet Office UK Government May 2002

Copyright OASIS, 2001 OASIS OVERVIEW OF ORGANISATION

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Overview  OASIS is a member-lead consortium dedicated to building systems interoperability specifications  We focus on industry applications of structured information standards, such as XML, SGML, and CGM.  Members of OASIS are providers, users and specialists of standards-based technologies and include organizations, government, individuals and industry groups. – ~200 organizational members, ~250 individual members  International, not-for-profit, open, independent  Successful through industry-wide collaboration

Copyright OASIS, 2001 OASIS technical agenda  The OASIS technical agenda is set by the members; bottom-up approach  Technical committees formed by the proposal of members  Attempt to cooperate and liaise with other standards organizations as much as possible

Copyright OASIS, 2001 OASIS standards process  Standards are created under an open, democratic, vendor-neutral process – Any interested parties may participate, comment – No one organization can dictate the standard – Ensures that standards meet everyone’s needs, not just largest players’  Open to all interested parties  All discussion open to public comment  Resulting work is guaranteed to be representative of the industry as a whole, not just any one vendor’s view

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Progression of OASIS technical work 1.Any three OASIS members propose creation of a technical committee (TC) 2.Existing technical work submitted to TC; or TC starts work at the beginning 3.TC conducts and completes technical work; open and publicly viewable 4.TC votes to approve work as an OASIS Committee Specification 5.TC votes to submit the Committee Specification to OASIS membership for consideration 6.OASIS membership reviews, approves the Committee Specification as an OASIS Standard

Copyright OASIS, 2001 E&VS Technical Committee Overview & Progress

Copyright OASIS, 2001 History Formed March 2001 – election.com, Accenture, Microsoft Inaugural Meeting May 2001 Chairmanship changed August 2001 Chair: Anwar Choudhury, UK Office of E-Envoy Monthly meetings and workshops to date – Teleconference and face-to-face

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Committee Membership Governments – UK, USA, Italy, France, Australia, NZ – European Parliament Corporations Election service providers Open source groups Media Election reform and watchdog groups

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Committee Charter “The purpose of the Election and Voter Services Technical Committee is to develop a standard for the structured interchange of data among hardware, software, and service providers who engage in any aspect of providing election or voter services to public or private organizations. The services performed for such elections include but are not limited to voter role/membership maintenance (new voter registration, membership and dues collection, change of address tracking, etc.), citizen/membership credentialing, redistricting, requests for absentee/expatriate ballots, election calendaring, logistics management (polling place management), election notification, ballot delivery and tabulation, election results reporting and demographics.”

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Deliverables  Election Markup Language (EML)  Data interchange standards to support voting processes  Defined as XML schemas  Facilitate all aspects of election and voter services, public and private  Sanctioned through OASIS

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Why Interchange Standards? Need for information to be exchanged at several points in the election process Several parties involved Need to service dissimilar systems and equipment Open process

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Why XML? Widely accepted open standard Ability to support disparate systems Text based Easy to understand and implement Extensible International

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Voting Processes and Data Requirements Document Outlines voting processes Identifies data requirements Identifies applications Identifies audit points Contains glossary of terms Addresses security issues

Copyright OASIS, 2001 XML Schemas Documents Overview of approach taken in preparing the schemas, eg structure, conventions, Namespaces Links to external schemas, eg XML Signature, xNAL, Timestamp 17 Individual schemas

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Scenarios Examples of how schemas can be used in specific situations, eg National elections, local elections, referendum, Annual General Meetings, favourite pop star, etc Country specific to reflect national rules Reflect different voting regimes, eg First Past Post, Preferential, etc

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Targeted Services  Pre election  Election  Candidates  Voters  Election  Voting  Post election  Results  Audit  Analysis

Copyright OASIS, 2001

Security Key security requirements are:  Identity authentication  Right to vote authentication  Vote sealing and non-repudiation of vote accuracy  Vote confidentiality  Voting Audit

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Milestones EML version 1 agreed by TC - May 2002 – Voting Process Document – 17 XML schemas Version 2 underway Testing / validation - on going OASIS ratification - End 2002? Future - maintenance / enhancements

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Future work Future versions to include features not addressed or missed in Version I Wider participation by other Governments and suppliers Accommodate other election systems Ongoing enhancements and review

Copyright OASIS, 2001 Thank you for your attention Any Questions? Tel no. +44 (0)