San Mateo Times: Democracy Live thinking outside the ballot box for CA counties
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 at 2:04PM |
article: www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=1757654&title=Thinking%20outside%20the%20ballot%20box Thinking outside the ballot box |
| November 06, 2012, 05:00 AM By Michelle Durand Daily Journal Staff |
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Consider it thinking outside the box — the ballot box, that is. San Mateo County is among several California counties trying out technology that lets more than 3,000 voters in dozens of countries access their local ballots with a few keystrokes no matter their location. While LiveBallot, developed by Washington state-based Democracy Live, is primarily aimed at military members stationed overseas, any voters living abroad can benefit. “The goal here is to make it more convenient for voters and facilitate more participation,” said Mark Church, chief elections officer and assessor-county clerk-recorder. So far, the county’s participation is pretty impressive. As of Monday, 376 ballots were actually downloaded which is the second highest of the state’s participating counties, Church said. Those ballots have been accessed across the globe — Argentina and Australian, Bangladesh and Czech Republic, Finland and El Salvador, Guyana and Indonesia, Israel and Jamaica, Malaysia and Myanmar, the Palestinian Territory and United Arab Emirates just to name a few, according to the running tally by Democracy Live. Users don’t actually vote online but can download and print ballots. The voter then fills out the form, signs it and can either mail or fax the paper. Some states, like Florida, allow users to fill in the ovals on their computer before printing, but California does not. While anyone abroad can use the web-based system, the ideal user is a soldier who may be stationed, for example, in one part of Afghanistan but moving around, said George Munro, director of communications for Democracy Live. “Even though he or she has a mailing address at the base, the ballot could just be sitting there while they are gone. By delivering the ballot through email they can access it anywhere they are,” Munro said. Democracy Live estimates there are approximately 6.5 million eligible voters for United States’ elections living overseas. San Mateo County sent out 3,020 notices to eligible voters overseas and, of those, 1,514 were returned, Church said. San Mateo County and 12 others signed up in 2011 with the federally funded Cal E-Promise consortium facilitated by El Dorado County to offer the online access through Oct. 30, 2016. The program is an offshoot of the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act of 2009 which aimed to improve the process. The county’s relationship officially began Sept. 25, making Tuesday’s presidential election the inaugural contest. Within a half hour of California counties going live with the system on Sept. 22, a ballot was downloaded electronically in Thailand, Munro said. “It’s really pretty amazing it happened that fast,” he said. The county received $150,000 as part of the $1.8 million federal grant which covers the costs of ballots downloaded and submitted through the LiveBallot system. The technology is hosted on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform and all the information is stored in the cloud rather than a local server which Munro said adds another layer of security. The cyber-balloting also frees up local elections offices from needing to email out individual ballots after first figuring out who requires which form based on precincts. LiveBallot is quicker and less expensive, Munro said. The company is expanding its civic offerings even further, too, allowing anyone visiting its site to download voter guides and sample ballots or look up information on financial contributions, top 10 donors and links to social media pages. Munro said accessing the information in the comfort of one’s home may lead to better education. “Everybody knows if they support Mitt or Barack, but so many out there feel intimidated when it comes to the other races. This gives them a way to make more thoughtful decisions,” Munro said.
The site is www.LiveBallot.com. |
Post a Comment | Email Article | Share Article Tweet Virginia test of tablet-based balloting with Microsoft and Democracy Live
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 at 1:51PM article: www.geekwire.com/2012/microsoft-surface-tested-balloting-device-virginia/
Here’s an interesting milestone for Microsoft Surface: One of the tablets is being tested in Virginia this week as a balloting device for state and national elections there.
The test is being conducted by Democracy Live, a company based in Issaquah, Wash., that works with Virginia and other states to deliver electronic ballots and voter information. Democracy Live uses Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud-based platform, and the Surface is running the company’s “LiveBallot” application through the browser.
The web app lets the voter use the Surface to access, mark, and print a ballot for tabulation by a separate machine.
For now it’s just one Surface in one precinct in Charlottesville, Va. However, Democracy Live CEO Bryan Finney says the company plans to work with Microsoft on a broader rollout of Surfaces following the upcoming release Surface for Windows 8 Pro, which will run legacy Windows applications on traditional Intel processors. (The current Surface for Windows RT runs on an ARM processor, so it doesn’t support legacy apps.)
The idea with the Virginia test is to get feedback in advance of that broader rollout. Many balloting computers are older machines running Intel 486-era processors, so the Surface has been in high demand in the precinct so far, Finney says.
Advantages include Windows 8′s built-in screen-reading functionality, plus USB support to enable sip-and-puff input devices for people with disabilities.
Update, Tuesday: Just to clarify, the key word here is that the Surface is being tested as a balloting device. It will still need to go through approvals for actual voting. Here’s a follow-up statement from Democracy Live …
“The LiveBallot deployment on the Microsoft Surface tablet is an exciting pilot test and an opportunity for voters to experience the next generation of voting technologies firsthand. The Surface is not being used for actual voting in Charlottesville. We will continue with another round of testing when the Surface Windows 8 Pro is released and we can fully deploy our LiveBallot technology. We look forward to continuing our work with Microsoft and deploying technologies that make voting more accessible for all Americans.”
Post a Comment | Email Article | Share Article Tweet CNET: Democracy Live teams with Microsoft to launch Tablet balloting
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 at 1:40PM Microsoft's Surface tablet is now a voting machine in Virginia.
article: news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57545760-75/microsofts-surface-a-balloting-device-in-one-precinct-in-virginia/
Democracy Live, a company based in Washington, works with several states to offer electronic ballots through its software, LiveBallot. According to GeekWire, which spoke with Democracy Live CEO Bryan Finney, a single Surface tablet is being used in a precinct in Charlottesville, Va., allowing voters to mark their ballots from the device.
Microsoft launched its Surface tablet late last month. The Surface is the first tablet from Microsoft, and runs Windows RT, a version of the company's operating system that supports ARM-based chips.
With LiveBallot running on the Surface, users are able to vote for their desired candidates. Voters then print out the ballot from the Surface to allow another machine to count it. LiveBallot is a cloud-based application running on Microsoft's Windows Azure platform.
Tablets have long been viewed as possibly useful voting machines. Last year, Apple donated five iPads to Oregon to help election workers in five counties make it easier for voters with disabilities to place their ballots. That was believed by some to be the first step toward a broader rollout of tablets across voting precincts.
However, with any device that can connect to the Web comes security concerns. And security is a huge concern in an important election. That's precisely why e-balloting hasn't taken off to the degree certain companies would like. It's also why the future of voting on a Surface oriPad is decidedly in doubt.
Post a Comment | Email Article | Share Article Tweet Interactive, Multimedia Ballot Now Available to All 200 Million Voters in the United States
Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 4:14PM LiveBallot.com, a free, nationwide eBalloting tool for voters, is now available to research the candidates and issues that will appear on a voter’s specific ballot. Any voter in the country can now access a wealth of information and make informed decisions before they cast their ballot. LiveBallot.com is powered by Democracy Live, the nation’s leading eBalloting provider, and offers unbiased, nonpartisan information that is individually tailored to each voter.
“Many voters feel like they don’t know enough about the candidates to make informed decisions,” said Bryan Finney, the President of Democracy Live. “LiveBallot.com allows voters to educate themselves before they go to the polls. Our tool gives voters a one stop shop to learn about candidates and issues they will vote on in an unbiased environment.”
LiveBallot.com is the nation’s first online Voter Information Guide. After a voter enters an address, the voter’s specific ballot displays in a clickable, markable form. The voter can click to view biographical and background information about candidates, review fundraising reports and connect to campaigns through social media and YouTube videos. After voters mark their selections online, they can print their completed Voter Information Guide as an Election Day cheat sheet.
“LiveBallot.com takes the mystery out of voting and provides every voter with a free, interactive guide that they can use to educate themselves,” said Finney. “Empowered voters directly lead to higher turnout rates in our country and at Democracy Live, our top priority is developing tools that encourage active participation in our democracy.”
Democracy Live is the country’s leading election technology provider and currently serves over 10 million voters in seven states. The company’s public sector arm has delivered thousands of electronic ballots to military and overseas citizens in over 90 countries on all seven continents. In addition, Democracy Live partnered with Microsoft Corporation and the Center for Technology and Disability Studies at the University of Washington to deploy the first ever accessible absentee ballot. Democracy Live technologies have been reviewed and approved for federal funding by the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Post a Comment | Email Article | Share Article Tweet AOL News: Democracy Live Enfranchise Overseas Voters With Help From The Cloud
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 10:19AM There are few aspects of modern life that haven't been touched by information technology. One of them is the voting process for U.S. overseas military personnel. For the most part, it's still done by snail mail. A soldier abroad receives a ballot by mail, marks it manually and returns it by mail.
"We've been doing this since the 1860s," said Paul Lux, supervisor of elections for Okaloosa County in northwest Florida. But that's in the process of changing.
Okaloosa and 12 other Florida counties have deployed a one-stop Web portal that lets overseas voters access their ballots online. They can mark their ballots on screen or print them out. While they still have to return the ballots to their voting districts by mail or fax, election officials are looking toward a time when absentee voters can return their ballots electronically.
How many voters does this impact?
Post a Comment | Email Article | Share Article Tweet Mashable.com: Democracy Live is Leader in eBalloting
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 12:02PM The 2012 Republican primary‘s first vote was not cast in New Hampshire, as most Americans would assume. An Okaloosa County, Fla