Learn how you can become a part of the push to digitize our nations voting platform and bring about the Digital Democracy through education and advocacy!

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) serves as an international nexus of trust, protecting and promoting open source software as well as the communities that develop and depend on it. Primarily known for our work in certifying open source software licenses, the OSI’s work today has grown—just as open source has—to include a variety of member-driven working groups and incubator projects that help practitioners and communities create and share resources, furthering the open source movement. For 17 years, the OSI has brought together open source developers, organizers, contributors, advocates, and businesses toward the common goal of creation through collaboration. Our membership campaign is dedicated to furthering this vision.

Our goal is to sign up 2,398 new individual members in celebration of the organization’s founding on 2/3/98. The “2,398 for 2/3/98” membership drive will also run in parallel with the OSI’s annual board elections, which started with nominations opening February 2 and runs through April 1, when the new board directors take their seats. The membership campaign will become an annual event.

Why join?

Membership provides several benefits to individuals, the OSI, and the open source software community. In addition to standard member benefits such as free and discounted books, magazines, conference registrations, and other learning and training materials, as a member-driven organization OSI individual members can vote for OSI board directors and even run for a seat.

In addition to governance, individual members are invited to join or create OSI-sponsored working groups and incubator projects in various areas of open source advocacy and adoption. These working groups and projects serve as resources for the entire open source community.

Read More Here: https://opensource.com/life/15/2/defending-open-source-join-osi-today

The post What is the Open Source Initiative (OSI)? appeared first on Follow My Vote.

This is a great partnership as both organizations are pushing for open source and transparent solutions. If you are unaware of what open source means, Wikipedia defines it as the following : In production and development, open source as a development model promotes a universal access via a free license to a product’s design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint, including subsequent improvements to it by anyone. It can become more complicated with defining licenses. The OSI lists out a more detailed description here.

CAVO is a non-profit organization in California leading the way in regards to education, best practices and development of open source voting systems that are used in public elections. OSI was founded in 1998 and helps bring about education, infrastructure, collaboration of open source projects. They also aid in provide a network for open source projects and companies.

CAVO and OSI recognize that advances in open source development can provide citizens and governments the opportunity to ensure that everyone’s vote is counted accurately and securely without being held hostage to private vendors nor aging, outdated infrastructure. Innovation through open source development will provide communities the capacity and certainty to administer elections for this century and keep the promise of democracy, namely that your vote will always count.

Source: Open Source Initiative.

The post On the Quest to Improve CA Voting Systems, CAVO Joins Open Source Initiative appeared first on Follow My Vote.

Other organizations like the California Association of Voting Officials (CAVO) are also working to bring open-source principles to American elections. “Every ballot that’s cast in the United States is counted by a machine, so we owe it to the voters and the public to use the most secure, most transparent, most auditable technology,” says former CAVO President Kammi Foote, who is also the elected registrar of voters for Inyo County, California. “Open source has proven itself in the private sector,” says Foote. “Now governments around the world are starting to look at open source as a good business model.”

The primitiveness of our voting technology is surprising in an era when we routinely use smartphones, big data is revolutionizing business, and the Internet of Things is spreading across the landscape. As Andrew Rasiej of the Personal Democracy Forum puts it, “Why haven’t we been able to apply an equal level of innovation in the way we vote?”

Time and again Americans are reminded of how inadequate our voting technology is. In 2000 it was the disastrous Florida recount, with its infamous “hanging chads.” In 2004 it was the Ohio recount. In 2008 a Minnesota recount. There were also problems in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries and the 2013 Virginia attorney-general race, not to mention innumerable, less-publicized local problems around the country.

One reason is that the U.S. elections-administration structure is decentralized and sprawling, delegating control to individual states and cities, which select and buy their own voting technology. Explains Foote, “Different jurisdictions use different technologies according to their budgets and timelines.” Sometimes they cobble together several kinds of technologies that only barely meet their needs. With about 180,000 precincts in the U.S., the outcome is a mishmash of machines, regulated by surprisingly few standards. While the 2002 Help America Vote Act appropriated billions of dollars to states to replace their punch-card- and lever-based voting machines with electronic ones, it didn’t do much to give them better electronic technology to choose from.

Because the voting-machine market is dominated by just three companies — Election System and Software, Dominion Voting Systems, and Hart InterCivic — elections administrators are left with very few options. Without any real competition and regulated by testing standards that are a decade old, incumbent voting-machine vendors have zero incentive to update their systems. According to Foote, “How can they invest in new technologies when they don’t know what future governments will allow?”

So elections administrators frequently buy outdated machines, use them for an election, and then store them away until the next one. As Miller puts it, “A voting machine spends most of its life in silence in cold, dark warehouses … only to be woken up periodically for one day of sheer chaos.” And as the machines grow older, the risk of problems also grows. “We’re still using 20-year-old technology that we know is problematic,” says Foote. If elections administrators could instead pool their resources together to develop free, open-source software, then run it on cheap, off-the-shelf hardware, they could ensure that every jurisdiction, no matter its budget, has the same access to the best voting technology available.

Read the rest of the article on The Huffington Post

The post CAVO Featured on The Huffington Post! appeared first on Follow My Vote.

At this time, we are excited to announce the latest development in our quest to create a more honest and transparent society here in the United States, which is that Follow My Vote has just joined CAVO, the California Association of Voting Officials.

Although CAVO has only been in existence since December 23, 2013, members of CAVO have been critical proponents of the open source voting movement for over a decade. They decided to form their organization on the heels of Senate Bill No. 360 passing out in California. (sponsored by Senator Alex Padilla, who is now Secretary of State)  We are both extremely excited that legislation now exists in California for county voting registrars to begin using government funds to explore pilot programs for elections that include open source voting solutions.

With this in mind, we at Follow My Vote have set our sights on California and are aggressively working towards the completion of the MVP (minimum viable product) of our voting platform, which is on schedule to be completed and ready for demonstration this December at the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO) Joint 2014 New Law Workshop.

Until then, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter and stay tuned to our website and social media profiles for future updates!

NOTE: for more info regarding our CAVO membership, please read the official CAVO press release or view the copy below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TWO KEY ELECTION SYSTEM COMPANIES JOIN CAVO

The California Association of Voting Officials (CAVO), an advocacy organization for open source election systems, today announced two election system companies, SOE Software and Follow My Vote, signing on as industry members.

“We are excited to have SOE and Follow My Vote on board as members,” stated CAVO President Kammi Foote. ”We look forward to all industry participants engaging in best open source security practices.”

The CAVO announcement comes on the heels of a White House statement regarding President Obama’s plan to have US governmental policy for open source systems by 2015.

Open source voting systems are not only more affordable, but they also enhance transparency and leave a reliable audit trail, ensuring accountability and integrity in elections.

SOE Software is a leading provider of election management and online voting solutions. SOE provides required election administration solutions for the election process.

Follow My Vote is developing the voting platform of the future, an [online] end-to-end voting platform, powered by BitShares.

CAVO is an association of voting officials, technologists and advocates for open source election systems.  CAVO’s mission is the certification of open source election systems as well as to provide an information hub for like minded members.

CAVO has been highlighted nationally as the leading advocacy organization for open source election systems. The State of Minnesota and numerous California counties are founding jurisdictions.

The post Follow My Vote Joins CAVO appeared first on Follow My Vote.