Open Source Voting System Project

This page serves as an informational “portal” or clearinghouse for San Francisco’s Open Source Voting System Project.

It contains a list of written reports and other official documents related to the open source voting system project. Each item listed also includes a short summary. For additional background, the list also includes documents related to San Francisco’s use of non-open source voting systems.

OSVTAC voted to create this page at its meeting on July 10, 2018, in response to a recommendation of the 2017-18 San Francisco Civil Grand Jury (CGJ) Report. The CGJ recommendation (Recommendation #3, or R3) is on page 22 of their report, which appears below under June 29, 2018.

Ongoing

• “Open Source Voting System Project Recommendations” (HTML), San Francisco Open Source Voting System Technical Advisory Committee (OSVTAC).

  This web page contains OSVTAC’s latest recommendations for the City and County of San Francisco’s open source voting system project. The recommendations are a work in progress and updated periodically. The recommendations are hosted on GitHub. OSVTAC discusses and votes on changes to this document at its monthly meetings, using an iterative process in public view – similar to how open source projects are developed.

• “OSVTAC Written Reports to the Commission” (HTML), San Francisco Open Source Voting System Technical Advisory Committee (OSVTAC).

  This page contains OSVTAC’s periodic written reports to the San Francisco Elections Commission. OSVTAC’s Bylaws require that OSVTAC write a report to the Commission at least once every four months.

One-time

The items in this section are listed below in reverse chronological order, grouped by year.

2018

• September 18. “Statement on Project Manager Hiring” (PDF), San Francisco Open Source Voting System Technical Advisory Committee (OSVTAC), 1 page. [source link]

  This is a brief statement by OSVTAC regarding the process of hiring a Senior Technical Project Manager for the open source voting project. OSVTAC created and adopted this statement at its September 13, 2018 meeting after the job was posted in late August.

• September 18. “Statement on Project Ownership and Project Management” (PDF), San Francisco Open Source Voting System Technical Advisory Committee (OSVTAC), 2 pages. [source link]

  This is a brief statement by OSVTAC explaining in high-level terms what it means to be a “project owner” as opposed to a project manager. OSVTAC created and adopted this statement at its August 27, 2018 meeting. The statement was in response to the Civil Grand Jury Report and an ensuing discussion that took place at the Elections Commission’s July 2018 meeting about whether the Department of Elections should be named the owner of the open source voting project.

• August 31. Responses to the 2017-18 Civil Grand Jury Report (PDF), letter from the Clerk of the Board with attachments from various respondents, 22 pages.

  This is a letter from the Clerk of the Board to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors containing all of the required responses to the 2017-18 San Francisco Civil Grand Jury Report, “Open Source Voting in San Francisco.” The letter includes attached responses from the Office of the Controller, the Office of the Mayor, the Department of Elections, the Department of Technology, and the Elections Commission.

  The letter also includes a cover letter on page 10 signed by Mayor London Breed, Director of the Department of Elections John Arntz, and Executive Director of the Department of Technology Linda Gerull.

• August 28. “Job Posting - 5504 Senior Technical Project Manager” (PDF), San Francisco Department of Technology, 5 pages. [source link]

  This is the job posting that the Department of Technology posted for the project manager to lead the open source voting project. From the posting: “This Senior Technical Project Manager will be responsible for leading the investigation, design, construction and implementation of an Open Source Voting System.” The position was funded out of the $300K that COIT allocated for the project in the spring of 2018. The position has a base salary of $163,176 per year.

  Note: for official information about the posting, including how to apply for it, visit the City’s jobs site reachable from the above “source link.”

• June 29. “Open Source Voting in San Francisco” (PDF), San Francisco Civil Grand Jury, 48 pages. [source link]

  The San Francisco Civil Grand Jury (CGJ) chose to investigate the San Francisco Department of Elections (among other entities) during its 2017-18 term of office. The CGJ investigation of the Department of Elections focused solely on the open source voting project. This is their report on the topic. It includes twenty-two findings and thirteen recommendations, with responses requested from the Mayor of San Francisco, the Director of the San Francisco Department of Elections, the President of the San Francisco Elections Commission, San Francisco’s Chief Information Officer (of the San Francisco Department of Technology), and the San Francisco Controller.

• June 20. “Open Source Voting Systems Resolution #2” (PDF), San Francisco Elections Commission, 8 pages. [TXT version, source link]

  The San Francisco Elections Commission adopted this resolution at its June 20, 2018 meeting. From the resolution’s preamble: “The Commission is adopting this resolution to supplement (and not replace) its first Open Source Voting Systems Resolution, adopted on November 18, 2015, since many events have transpired since that time.”

• June 15. “Statement on Slalom Report” (PDF), San Francisco Open Source Voting System Technical Advisory Committee (OSVTAC), 1 page. [source link]

  This is a brief statement by OSVTAC commenting on Slalom’s “Open Source Voting System Feasibility Assessment” report below. OSVTAC created and adopted this statement at its June 14, 2018 meeting. The statement begins, “Certain inaccuracies and basic omissions in Slalom’s Report lead us to seriously question the report as a whole. We recommend not relying on it for determining the future direction of the project.”

• March 19. “Recommendation regarding Initial Project Funding” (PDF), San Francisco Open Source Voting System Technical Advisory Committee (OSVTAC), 3 pages. [source link]

• March 14. “Open Source Voting System Feasibility Assessment” (PDF), Slalom, 65 pages.

• February 1. “Request for Proposals for Leasing or Renting a Voting System” (PDF), REG RFP #2018-01, San Francisco Department of Elections, 31 pages. [source link]

2017

• May 22. “Request for Proposals for Preparing a Business Case for Developing an Accessible, Open Source Voting System” (PDF), REG RFP #2017-01, San Francisco Department of Elections, 25 pages.

• April – August. “Job Posting - 1823 Senior Administrative Analyst” (PDF), San Francisco Department of Elections, 6 pages. [PDF version #2, Word version #2, source link]

  Note: the above job posting is expired and is here only for reference.

• January 20. “Contract Amendment - Voting System - Not to Exceed $21,980,691.25” (PDF), Ordinance No. 005-17, File No. 161094, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 5 pages.

  “Ordinance authorizing the Department of Elections to enter into the Fourth Amendment of an agreement with Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. to extend the term of the agreement through December 31, 2018, increasing the total not-to-exceed amount of the Agreement by $2,289,758, from $19,690,933.25 to $21,980,691.25.”

2015

• November 18. “Open Source Voting Systems Resolution” (PDF), San Francisco Elections Commission, 8 pages. [TXT version, source link]

  “Resolution to support the development and certification of an open source voting system running on commercial off-the-shelf hardware; and to request that the Mayor and Board of Supervisors initiate and fund a project to develop and certify such a system for use in San Francisco.”

• October 23. “Study on Open Source Voting Systems” (PDF), San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission, 39 pages. [source link]

  This is the final report created by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo), which the Board of Supervisors asked it to create in its December 2014 open source voting resolution.

• August 6. “Request for Information (RFI), San Francisco’s Voting System” (PDF), REG RFI #2015-01, San Francisco Department of Elections, 17 pages. [source link]

2014

• December 19. “Supporting the Creation of Open Source Voting Systems - Studying New Models of Voting System Development” (PDF), Resolution No. 460-14, File No. 141105, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 5 pages.

  “Resolution committing the City and County of San Francisco to work with other jurisdictions and organizations to create new voting systems using open source software; and to study the feasibility of the City and County of San Francisco developing and using a new voting system, either whole or in part, through a collaborative model like the Los Angeles County Voting Systems Assessment Project.”

2013

• November 26. “Contract Amendment – Voting System – Not to Exceed $19,690,933.25” (PDF), Ordinance No. 269-13, File No. 130797, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 5 pages. [source link]

  “Ordinance authorizing the Department of Elections to enter into the third amendment of an agreement with Dominion Voting Systems, Inc., to commence following Board approval, to extend the term of the agreement through December 10, 2016, increasing the total not-to-exceed amount of the agreement by $3,645,900 from $16,045,033.25 to $19,690,933.25.”

2011

• November 22. “Contract Extension – Voting System – Not to Exceed $2,264,800” (PDF), Resolution No. 494-11, File No. 111153, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 3 pages.

  This is the resolution approving the second amendment to San Francisco’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems (who assumed Sequoia Voting Systems’ contract with the City), for an amount not to exceed $2,264,800 and to extend the term of the contract from its previous end date of December 11, 2011 to a new date of December 11, 2013.

• June 2011. “Recommendations on Voting Systems for the City and County of San Francisco” (PDF), San Francisco Voting Systems Task Force (VSTF), 57 pages. [source link]

  This is the final report created by the Voting Systems Task Force (VSTF), which was established by the Board of Supervisors’ 2008 ordinance.

2008

• December 1. “Voting Systems Task Force” (PDF), Ordinance No. 268-08, File No. 081227, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 6 pages.

  “Ordinance amending the Administrative Code by adding Sections 5.400-410 to establish a Voting Systems Task Force comprised of individuals with backgrounds in good government, computer science or the computer industry, election administration, and accommodations of persons with disabilities, to make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors about voting system standards, design and development.”

• January 18. First Amendment to Contract with Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc. (PDF), San Francisco Office of Contract Administration, Purchasing Division, 6 pages.

  This is the first amendment to San Francisco’s contract with Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc. (acquired by Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. on June 4, 2010). It is for an amount not to exceed $13,780,233.25 to be paid over the years from 2007 to 2011.