Happy “Holidaze”
On the eve of 2012 we so need to check in here and let you know we’re still fighting the good fight and have been totally distracted by a bunch of activities. There is much to catch you up on and we’ll start doing that in the ensuing days, but for [...]
Temporarily Missing, But Still in Action
Dec 31st, 2011 by Gregory Miller
An Independence Holiday Reflection: IP Reform and Innovation in Elections Technology
Jul 4th, 2011 by Gregory Miller
On this Independence Day I gave some reflection to the intentions of our founding fathers, and how that relates to our processes of elections and the innovations we should strive for to ensure accuracy, transparency, verification, and security. And as I thought about this more while gazing out at one of the world’s most precious [...]
Election Transparency Must be Apolitical
May 27th, 2011 by Gregory Miller
For those of you who have been following the recount saga in Wisconsin, here is a bit of news, and a reflection on that.
So, the news from a couple of days ago (I’m just catching up) is that the process of re-counting is complete, but the resolution of that close election may [...]
Detours in Election Technology: The “Open” Factor and Mobility
May 17th, 2011 by E. John Sebes
In a recent posting, I recalled the old-fashioned traditional proprietary-IT-think of vendors leveraging their proprietary data for their customers, and contrasted that with election technology where the data is public.
In the “open data” approach, you do not need to have integrated reporting features as part of a voting system or election management system. Instead, you [...]
Detours in Election Technology: The “Open” Factor and Tradeoffs
May 16th, 2011 by E. John Sebes
During some recent election technology adoption discussions, I’ve realized how some standard proprietary-IT-think has affected acquisitions of election technology. And it is a mind-set that I used to have too, back when I was in the enterprise IT infrastructure business.
Back then, the normal thing was to have a core technology with some primary value, a [...]
Bedrock 4: Into the Ballot Design Studio
May 10th, 2011 by E. John Sebes
Continuing our Bedrock election story (see parts one, two, and three if you need to catch up), we find the County of Bedrock Board of Elections staff, including design guru Dana Chisel, in the “ballot design studio,” a dusty back room of the BBoE. Chisels in hand, staffers ponder the blank slate, or rather sandstone, [...]
Help Wanted; The Search is On
May 4th, 2011 by Gregory Miller
Greetings All-
Sorry we’ve been away from the podium here for a couple of weeks. We’re heads-down on some very exciting projects. But not nearly as exciting as what I have to announce today. Let’s get right to it.
The time has come. Some might argue it’s overdue. Growth of the activities and work here, and the [...]
Bedrock 3: The Big Picture
Apr 8th, 2011 by E. John Sebes
At the end of our last visit to the fictional Town of Bedrock, we left Fred as he applied to run for mayor. Now we’ll continue the story, but with a focus on Bedrock itself, in order to continue building up a detailed, yet simplified, account of actual U.S. election practice.
The focus is on Bedrock [...]
Voting System (De)Certification, Reloaded (Part 3 of 2)
Apr 7th, 2011 by E. John Sebes
Thanks to some excellent recent presentations by EAC folks, we have today a pleasant surprise of an update to our recent blogs Voting System Decertification: A Way Forward (in Part 1 and Part 2). As you might imagine with a government-run test and certification program, there is an enormous amount of detail (much of it [...]

At the Risk of Running off the Rails
Jan 7th, 2012 by Gregory Miller
So, we have a phrase we like to use around here borrowed from the legal academic world. Used to describe an action or conduct in analyzing a nuance in tort negligence, is the phrase “frolic and detour.” I am taking a bit of detour and frolicking in an increasingly noisy element of explaining the complexity [...]
Tags: agile, Commentary, complexity, data model, Development methodology, Gregory Miller, Technology, voting technology
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