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Abstract
The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS)Election Markup Language (EML) is described by a set of reference processes and an accompanying set of XML Schemas. These schemas define a set of messages covering five main categories of transaction:
voter facing transactions, such as delivery of a ballot "paper" and the ability to cast a vote over the Internet, through text messaging or using other electronic means;
candidate transactions, such as the ability to nominate candidates and accept nominations;
administrative transactions, such as communicating a list of eligible voters;
reporting transactions, such as the ability to report a result; and
security-related transactions.
The technical group charter describes EML as being "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". This provides a huge scope, allowing EML to be used for anything from a web site or Short Message Service (SMS) vote for your favourite pop group to highly sophisticated and secure public sector elections.
This paper describes the background to EML, the reference voting process adopted to give a common basis for discussion, the EML messages themselves, the security mechanisms used to ensure suitability for public sector elections and the ways in which EML can be tailored for different election scenarios.
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