Voting Systems Institute Established

February 7, 2005

The USC Information Sciences Institute-headquartered Digital Government Research Center and the Center for Governmental Studies have announced the creation of the Voting Systems Institute.

The VSI will support a growing grassroots effort to develop objective test standards for tamperproof, verifiable and technologically sound voting systems.

VSI will be a joint entity of the Digital Government Research Center (DGRC) and the Center for Governmental Studies (CGS), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with a 20-year track record of using technology to empower the underserved and improve communication between voters and candidates for office.

Funded by the National Science Foundation and other agencies, the DGRC is a joint enterprise of USC and Columbia University, with a charter to use digital technology to improve government efficiency and public access.

VSI will work closely with the newly formed Voting Systems Performance Rating (VSPR) effort, which has brought together state and county election officials, computer and security experts, and voting equipment manufacturers to create assessment methods for voting systems.

CGS chief executive officer Tracy Westen said that “VSPR's aim is to improve confidence in U.S. election systems by providing an open and objective basis for rating them.”

The VSPR rating methods can be used by advocates and election officials during purchasing decisions, Westen said. “We expect over time that VSPR will create a framework for innovation that will ultimately lead to increased voter confidence and civic participation.”

Yigal Arens, co-director of DGRC and a division director at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Information Sciences Institute, noted that VSPR is modeled on the highly successful Internet Engineering Task Force, the unincorporated entity responsible for developing the standards that make the Internet work.

“We believe that VSI can introduce the same open, democratic methods for voting systems that succeeded brilliantly in creating workable and universally accepted standards for the Internet,” Arens said, adding that VSI will be able to facilitate VSPR's efforts by helping provide access to academic expertise and, potentially, research funding.

Arens' home institution, ISI, was deeply involved in the IETF, “and we understand how to help build consensus among different parties from our previous work there,” he said.

Arens and Westen said that VSI will be headed by James Dolbear, who has previously founded and run technology associations and has researched voting developments extensively over the last several years.

Dolbear recounted that in the wake of problems with punch-card systems in Florida, the “Help America Vote Act of 2002” provided funding to replace voting systems, and as a result state and local election officials initiated a wide range of reforms while vendors introduced new voting equipment.

“But progress has been tempered by continuing security concerns,” Dolbear said. “And coming out of the November elections, absentee voting, provisional voting and registration have been highlighted as potential issues.

“VSPR offers a way forward by bringing together all parties to structure and define the relevant technical aspects of voting systems,” he added.

“We are embracing VSI as a natural outgrowth of our community building role in digital government,” Arens said.