Election Service TC Meeting May 15, 2001

Title: Election Service TC Meeting May 15, 2001

Here are the minutes from the May 15, 2001 meeting.  Please note that these minutes will appear in the committee archives and will be posted as a link on our web page: www.oasis-open.org/committees/election/index.shtml.

Election and Voter Registration Technical Committee

Minutes of Meeting 15-May 2001

Meeting Format: Face-to-face with teleconference

Chair: Gregg McGilvray

Location: election.com Headquarters, 1001 Franklin Ave., Garden City, New York 11530, USA

Attendees: In person - Gregg McGilvray, Dan Ryan, Alex Leventhal; Via teleconference - Michael Minnich, 

Oliver Bell, Karl Best, Tim Bovee, Steven Hagan, Jason Kitkat, Deborah Phillips, TJ Rainsford, Krishna Sankar, 

Thom Wysong

The meeting was called to order by Mr. McGilvray at 2:03 PM EDT

Mr. McGilvray welcomed everyone and went through a brief explanation of XML for the benefit of the non-technical 

attendees.  He also explained that OASIS was chosen to host the standard because of their openness, vendor 

independence, and global scope.

Karl Best, Director of Technical Operations, gave an overview of OASIS including its charter and the process 

and conduct of its technical committees.  He also explained the Intellectual Property Rights policy of OASIS  

and suggested that more information could be obtained from the organizations web site www.oasis-open.org.  

Mr. McGilvray gave a background on the committee including the timeframes observed for the formation of the 

committee, call for participation, and the deadline and requirements for becoming a voting member.  

The requirements for being a voting member at the first meeting were to have signed up for the committee prior 

to May 1, 2001 and attend the first meeting.  He also stated that anyone signed up for the committee before 

this meeting would be able to vote at the next face-to-face meeting (which will be scheduled for more than 

60 days from this meeting date) if there were any issue to vote upon.  The requirements for becoming a voting 

member after the May 1 deadline are either attendance at three meetings or passing the 60 day probationary period, 

whichever comes first.

A standing rule was established for conducting business and voting by email to accommodate worldwide members.  

The discussion list () may be posted to by committee members and will 

be publicly archived at http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/election-services.  The public may make comments 

and suggestions at .

It was decided to conduct teleconference meetings every three weeks and face-to-face meetings approximately 

every 2 months.  If alternate meeting locations are made available we will take advantage of them to ease 

travel burdens on those wishing to attend meetings in person.  It was suggested by a US west coast participant 

that future meetings could start as early as 7:00 AM PST (10:00 AM EDT, 14:00 GMT).  There was no objection.

The committee business began with an outline of areas of interest that were submitted in the documentation for 

the formation of the committee.  It was suggested that these areas were only a starting point and could be amended 

or altered as the committee saw fit.  The areas included: 1) Ballot generation and return vote tabulation, 

2) Security (including authentication, authorization, and auditing), 3) Voter registration and membership 

role management, 4) Reporting and demographics, 5) Accessibility.  The security areas of authorization, 

auditing, and authentication were originally separate items but Mr. Sankar suggested that they be combined 

under the umbrella of "Security".  

The phases for completion of the above areas with the deliverable dates were broken down as follows:

Phase I - 

* Ballot delivery and Vote Return

* Security

    o Authentication

    o Authorization

    o Auditing

* Accessibility

Deliverable: Specification ready for OASIS vote by November 15, 2001.

Phase II

* Election Notification

* New voter/membership registration

* Voter/membership management

* Absentee expatriate ballot request

* Results Reporting

Deliverable: Specification ready for OASIS vote by May 15, 2002.

Phase III

* Election Calendaring

* Redistricting

* Those items yet to be identified

Deliverable: Specification ready for OASIS vote by November 15, 2002.

Phase I Action Items:

Gregg McGilvray will make available to the distribution list by early next week his draft of the ballot and 

return vote specification (BML).

Dan Ryan will do some research into accessibility issues and the role of data interchange as it relates to 

accessibility.

Krishna Sankar will begin the leg work in coordinating with the Security Services Committee and begin addressing 

the security concerns of this committee.

All members will consider any other needs which need to be addressed and the timeframes for addressing them.  

Other Matters brought before the meeting:

Several members expressed concerns that the imposition of a fee to become an OASIS member may be a barrier to 

entry for some not-for-profit groups and may give the appearance of being a close committee for that reason.  

A discussion with OASIS will follow.

Ms. Phillips suggested that we promote the standard to ensure a broader acceptance of  and participation in 

the standard.  She, Mr. Rainsford, and other members suggested various individuals and group that should be 

contacted to support this idea.  Groups such as NASS (Sharon Priest), ITAA, National Commission of election 

Reform, etc. were suggested and members will follow up with them.

Mr. Rainsford suggested forming relationships with other standards groups such as NITF and Mr. Sankar suggested 

that we form binding subcommittees with such groups.  

A suggestion was made to make a list of committee members available to all committee members.  A suggestion to 

post name and email address to the mail list and web site met no resistance and will be posted shortly.

Mr. Ryan and Mr. Sankar responded to a call for volunteers for the position of committee secretary and committee 

editor respectfully.  Mr. McGilvray will continue to act as web master.

Future Meetings:

June 12,2001 teleconference only

July 24, 2001 face-to-face and teleconference

There being no further business, a motion to close the meeting was made by Mr. Leventhal at 3:25 PM and seconded 

by Mr. Ryan.