Technology Research & Development
Innovation is Mandatory.
OUR ROLE
This is primarily open source software development, but also includes R&D activities for physical voting device innovations, including firmware and silicon-based security.
Our work, underway since 2007, amounts to an open source democracy software foundry and the public-facing initiative called the “TrustTheVote® Project.” The flagship effort is ElectOS™—an election administration technology framework including cloud-based election administration Apps and services, and a software layer for a modified off-the-shelf hardware-based voting system producing a durable paper ballot of record.
OSET INSTITUTE ACTIVITY BREAKDOWN
INNOVATIONS FOR EVERYONE
The largest percentage of our activities, and the principal purpose of the Institute, is election technology research and development (R&D). A major portion of this work resides in our public-facing TrustTheVote® Project, namely the ElectOS™ People’s Voting System, but the Institute is also active in several collateral open source projects.
ELECTION TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
In addition to ElectOS, the Institute is researching, developing and contributing to a number of election technology innovations – some voter-facing, others for improved administration, such as:
3rd Party voter registration and services technology
Ballot-marking tools for the disability community
Cryptographic-based ballot counting verification techniques
Contributions to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) development of the 2nd version of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG 2.0)
Voter services tools to provide immediate information such as polling place wait times and changes to voter registration status
Robotic signature-transfer technology
Ranked-choice voting tabulation software
Risk-limiting audit software appliance
Trusted boot and verifiable hardware integrity attestation technologies
IMPORTANCE
This is the heart and soul of the OSET Institute's cause and mission to increase confidence in elections and their outcomes in defense of democracy.
The OSET Institute is the only 501(c)(3) organization of its kind—building a publicly available platform of election administration and voting software technology.
This work is imperative to revitalizing an imploding sector of government I.T. where there is no commercial incentive to do so, and the government itself cannot.
This work is also essential to the public benefit of more trustworthy voting systems that are lower cost, more secure, with higher reliability, and easier to use for voters and administrators alike.
IMPACT
The OSET Institute’s work is global in reach.
Public software development is benefiting all western democracies. Today, 40% of inquiries about our work come from abroad. We have an R&D initiative in Canada, and are under consideration for collaborations in the E.U., parts of Africa, India, Latin America, and the Far East.
Today, the OSET Institute is the supplier of 3rd party voter registration technology to Rock The Vote™, which in turn provides the software to a wide range of other 3rd party voter outreach organizations including both major political parties. This work incorporates apps and services like canvassing and absentee ballot request services.
The TrustTheVote® Project builds and maintains voter services portal software dating back to a first implementation in the Commonwealth of Virginia over a decade ago, and now under consideration in several states.
There are also vital software projects underway to protect and better secure voter registration records and improve voter services for increasingly digital and mobile democratic societies.
Our ElectOS™ election technology framework is designed with input from 200+ election officials in 28 U.S. states, and increasingly input from democracies abroad. When completed and certified, it’s likely to receive consideration as a fresh alternative in dozens of U.S. states needing to replace systems in the coming years, with pilots potentially as soon as 2025, and a goal of widespread global availability by 2026.