AOL Government: Election Districts Enfranchise Overseas Voters With Help From The Cloud

There are few aspects of modern life that haven't been touched by information technology. One of them is the voting process for U.S. overseas military personnel. For the most part, it's still done by snail mail. A soldier abroad receives a ballot by mail, marks it manually and returns it by mail.

"We've been doing this since the 1860s," said Paul Lux, supervisor of elections for Okaloosa County in northwest Florida. But that's in the process of changing.

Okaloosa and 12 other Florida counties have deployed a one-stop Web portal that lets overseas voters access their ballots online. They can mark their ballots on screen or print them out. While they still have to return the ballots to their voting districts by mail or fax, election officials are looking toward a time when absentee voters can return their ballots electronically.

How many voters does this impact?

Roll Call: Tech Firms Target Lawmakers with New Devices

On Wednesday evening, Capitol Hill got its own version of Las Vegas’ annual Consumer Electronics Show, with tech industry leaders on hand not to lobby, they insist, but simply to show off their wares.

“No one is there to lobby for anything,” said Cat Matsuda, director of development for the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus, which organized the show. “They’re there to show their technologies and to talk about the potential impact of the technology on the forecast for the upcoming year.”

Matsuda said the purpose of the exhibition is to give companies, nonprofits and government agencies the chance to educate Members and staff.

“The overall goal of the advisory committee is to provide education for Members of Congress and government staff regarding Internet and high-tech policy,” she said.

Wednesday night’s Kickoff Reception and Technology Exhibition in the Hart Senate Office Building marked the 15th year the event has happened. The preceding annual State of the Net Conference — which brings leaders in the technology world together with staffers and policymakers to discuss industry issues — took place a week earlier.

For some of the 25 attendees — including the Federal Trade Commission, voter information firm Democracy Live, and social media platforms Facebook and YouTube — their presence on the Hill seems fitting.

Read more about what we saw at the Technology Exhibition >

Mashable: U.S. Takes First Steps Toward Internet Voting

The 2012 Republican primary‘s first vote was not cast in New Hampshire, as most Americans would assume. An Okaloosa County, Fla., resident living in Thailand got that privilege in December, thanks to a new technology called LiveBallot.

LiveBallot, a new platform for accessing ballots built on the Windows Azure operating system, allows American citizens living abroad to access their official ballots from the cloud, 45 days before a state primary or national election.

Once voters download their ballots — from anywhere in the world with Internet access — they can return them by postal service or, for overseas voters only, fax.

You may be thinking that getting your ballot online is only half of online voting. However, as Kim Nelson, director of eGovernment at Microsoft points out, it eliminates the more difficult part of the process.

“While it does only solve half the problem, it’s the most important half,” Nelson told Mashable. “A person living overseas is highly mobile, but almost always has access to the Internet. The Secretary of State isn’t moving, so getting it back to the U.S. is a whole lot easier.”

Nelson notes that while several countries in Europe allow Internet voting, the U.S. does not, largely due to security concerns. Making ballots available online does not, however, present the risk of election fraud, because all ballots still must be signed by registered voters.

Read Full Article on Mashable.com >

CivSource: Overseas Voters from FL and VA get ballots online

The US Department of Defense (DoD) is giving states funds to support the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act. The act builds on existing voting rights for individuals in the military or American citizens living abroad, by ensuring that they are still allowed to vote in their local US elections and have those votes counted. Florida and Virginia were the first states to get DoD money associated with the MOVE Act and they’ve partnered with Microsoft to give voters abroad online access to their ballots.

CivSource spoke with Kim Nelson, executive director for e-government at Microsoft, about LiveBallot an application that is part of the company’s DemocracyLive product which will provide online ballot access for residents of Florida and Virginia. The solution is already in place and since voting began for the Republican primary in December, over 1,200 Florida voters from 40 countries have accessed their ballot using LiveBallot, through an online web portal.

“Florida and Virginia submitted their applications on the basis of using LiveBallot,” Nelson explains. California was also awarded funds from DoD to use LiveBallot and will be opening their portal up for voting ahead of their primary in June.

Read Full Article at CivSourceOnline.com >

LiveBallot Gets Overseas Votes to the Polls on Time

The Florida 2012 Republican Primary is scheduled for Jan. 31, but Florida residents living and working overseas have had access to ballots since December via an online Web portal in the cloud. To date, more than 1,200 Florida residents from 40 counties have used Democracy Live’s LiveBallot to get immediate access to their ballots. They have been able to fill out those ballots online or on paper and return them via mail or fax, depending on state election laws. LiveBallot is deployed and hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.

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TechFlash.com: With Microsoft backing, Democracy Live brings ballot boxes to G.I.s overseas.

TechFlash.com: Democracy Live is playing an important role in the presidential primaries in Florida, Virginia and California by making it easier for American military personnel stationed overseas and other citizens living abroad to vote in U.S. elections. Since voting began, more than 1,200 Florida voters in 40 countries have accessed ballots using LiveBallot, a technology developed by Issaquah-based Democracy Live and hosted on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform.

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States Choose Cloud-based Ballots for Voters Around the Globe

Florida, Virginia, California Turn to Democracy Live and Microsoft Windows Azure to Instantly Deliver First Ballots of the 2012 Presidential Primary

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Democracy Live Launches Tablet-based eBalloting - Replacing expensive voting machines

Democracy Live has taken accessibility to the next level with our accessible ballot marking tool now available on iPad or other ADA accessible tablets.  The Democracy Live solution, called LiveBallot was developed and tested in coordination with the The University of Washington Center for Technology and Disabilities in order to offer an alternative, HAVA disability compliant ballot marking tool for disabled voters.   This new tool has been approved for HAVA Section 261 funding at the federal level.

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San Joaquin selects Democracy Live - Receives military voting grant

Updated on Monday, November 28, 2011 at 9:40PM by Democracy Live Admin

Another California county has been offered a grant from the Department of Defense to provide accessible ballots to overseas voters. What could this mean for Democracy Live?

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Escambia County Selects Democracy Live - Receives Electronic Absentee Voting System Grant

Escambia County is among 13 Florida counties sharing a $1.6 million grant to enhance the absentee voting process for military and overseas citizens. The Electronic Absentee Systems for Elections grant was awarded by the Federal Voting Assistance Program.

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