John, Belinda,
I am a technically oriented business executive, trained in formal problem analysis and decision making, and a practitioner of the art of systems architecture.
We have a classic situation. Without first documenting a precise and agreed to set of requirements, competing forces are pushing their "solution". These forces include disabled voters, technicians, political organizations, and election managers. This out-of-sequence approach is doomed to failure.
So the first step, in my opinion, must be to get the vested parties to agree first to the REQUIREMENTS of the voting system -- the entire voting system.
So how do we accomplish this? A multidisciplinary team of experts should be funded to produce a detailed ELECTION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS document. This process must be totally open to the public. The resulting requirements would be non-proprietary and public. Every voting system implementation would be required to prove that it meets or exceeds these requirements.
I believe that all of us want the same things -- every eligible voter must be given the opportunity to privately vote and cast a secure, indelible, verified and anonymous ballot that will be counted as the voter intends, and that the counting process must be transparent and verified.
Al Kolwicz
