Voting is one of the most critical features in our democratic process. In addition to providing for the orderly transfer of power, it also cements the citizen’s trust and confidence in an organisation or government when it operates efficiently. In the past, changes in the election process have proceeded deliberately and judiciously, often entailing lengthy debates over even the most minute detail. These changes have been approached with caution because discrepancies with the election system threaten the very principles that make our society democratic.

Times are changing. Society is becoming more and more web oriented and citizens, used to the high degree of flexibility in the services provided by the private sector, are now beginning to set demanding standards for the delivery of services by governments.

Internet voting is seen as the logical extension of internet applications in commerce and government and in the wake of the United States 2000 general elections is among those solutions being seriously considered to replace older, less reliable election systems.

The implementation of Internet voting would allow increased access to the voting process for millions of potential voters. Higher levels of voter participation will lend greater legitimacy to the electoral process and should help to reverse the trend towards voter apathy that is fast becoming a feature of many democracies. However it has to be recognised that the use of technology will not by itself correct this trend.Greater engagement of voters throughout the whole democratic process is also required.

In the election industry today, there are a number of different service vendors around the world, all integrating different levels of automation, operating on different platforms and employing different architectures.With the global focus on e-voting systems and initiatives, the need for a consistent, auditable, automated election system has never been greater.

For the purposes of this document, e-voting includes a variety of electronic systems, including: Direct Recording Electronic devices, Optical scan devices, Kiosks, Telephone voting, Wireless Application Protocol ( SMS) voting,Short Message Service ( SMS) voting, Internet voting (remotely or in polling place) and any e-counting specific devices, such as scanners, wands etc.

The introduction of open standards for election solutions is intended to enable election officials around the world to build upon existing infrastructure investments, to evolve their systems as new technologies emerge and to simplify the election process in a way that was never possible before.Open election standards will aim to instil confidence in the democratic process among citizens and government leaders alike, particularly within emerging democracies where the responsible implementation of the new technology is critical.

OASIS, the international XML interoperability consortium, formed the Election and Voter Services Technical Committee to standardise election and voter services information using XML.( See http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/election/#top Oasis web site for the committee’s Terms of Reference, current membership and work to date.) The committee is focused on delivering a reliable, accurate and trusted XML specification (Election Markup Language (EML)) for the structured interchange of data among hardware, software and service vendors who provide election systems and services.EML, the first XML specification of its kind, will provide a uniform, secure and verifiable way to allow e-voting systems to interact as new global election processes evolve and are adopted.

The Committee’s mission statement is:

“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 organisations. 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.”

In addition to the business and technical requirements, the committee has been faced with the additional challenges of specifying a requirement that is:

The Committee has followed these guidelines and operated under the general premise that any data exchangestandards must be evaluated with constant reference to the public trust in the voting system.

The primary function of an electronic voting system is to capture voter preferences reliably and report them accurately. Capture is a function that occurs between “a voter” (individual person) and “an e-voting system” (machine).It is critical that any election system be able to prove that a voter’s choice is captured correctly and privately, and that the vote is not subject to tampering. The goal of the Committee is to design a new e-voting system standard that meets these established electoral requirements.

To meet the objectives, the committee has attempted to define a generic process for running elections, which is seen as consistent with current practice across a number of different international jurisdictions. Two complementary high-level process models have been developed of an election exercise based on the human and technical views of the processes involved. These models intend to identify all the generic steps involved in the process and highlight all the areas where data is to be exchanged. Appendix ASection 2 describes a model of the human process, Appendix B attempts to replicate this model in electronic version and Appendix C gives an outline of the processes.

From the outset consistent use of terminology was a problem and Appendix D shows the agreed terminology used by the committee throughout its work.

The next step was then to isolate all the individual data items that are required to make each of these processes function. From this point, the approach has been to use XML as a simple and standard way of exchanging this data across different electronic platforms.

Finally, the committee will be conducting pilot studies using the prototype EML standard to test its effectiveness across a number of different international jurisdictions. The committee document set will include:

The following issues are still under consideration by the committee and when resolved will have an impact on the process definitions and XML schemas.

The work of the Technical Committee will continue for some considerable time, and is governed by the OASIS rules and regulations for running such committees, see http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process.shtml.

The outline timetable for future work is as follows:

March/April ’02 - public consultation on draft process definition and XML schemas

April ’02 – technical committee approves version 1 of the schemas for use in pilot/test systems

May-Oct ’02 – validation of processes and schemas by other governments and suppliers

Autumn ’02 – technical committee proposes formal ratification of EML version 1 by OASIS

Thereafter – maintenance/enhancement of EML to reflect additional requirements of governments and suppliers