VotingWorks
Open-source election software and hardware nonprofit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
VotingWorks is a nonprofit organization that creates and sells open-source voting systems in the U.S. They currently have three products: one for casting and counting ballots,[1] another, named Arlo, for risk-limiting audits (RLAs),[2] and a third for accessible at-home voting.
| Formation | 2018 |
|---|---|
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Headquarters | N/A (Virtual) |
Executive Director | Ben Adida |
| Website | https://voting.works |
Spenser Mestel praised VotingWorks as helping to break up the monopoly of three voting systems owned by private equity firms and bring transparency and more security to the voting process.[3] He also praised the organization for being transparent about its donors and criticized the private equity firms for not disclosing their investors.[3]
Organization
VotingWorks is a 501(c)3 founded in 2018. At the time, the next youngest election systems provider in the United States was 13 years older, with the second youngest being 40 years older.[4] Ben Adida, who helped found the organization, holds a PhD from MIT in cryptography with a focus on elections and had previously worked as the Director of Engineering at Mozilla and Square.[4] VotingWorks had a staff of 15 as of 2021.[4]
Adoption
In 2019, VotingWorks piloted its election systems for vote counting in the primary and general elections in Choctaw County, Mississippi, thanks in part to a favorable regulatory environment.[5] Since then, other counties in Mississippi have signed-on and the state of New Hampshire has conducted a pilot,[1] with other counties such as San Francisco looking to work with VotingWorks.[6] New Hampshire's audit of its pilot found the software to be accurate, but the state has requested some hardware improvements.[7][8] Officials in Mississippi have praised how easy it is to use.[3]
Risk-limiting audits have also been performed using VotingWorks' other product, Arlo, in a few states including in Georgia.[2]
| Vote Casting+Counting | Risk-Limiting Audit | Accessible Vote-by-mail | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | ᚷ[9] | ||
| Kentucky | ᚷ[9] | ||
| Massachusetts | ᚷ[10][9] | ||
| Mississippi | ᚷ*[11][5] | ||
| New Hampshire | ᚷ*[1] | ᚷ[10][9] | |
| Georgia | ᚷ[12][11][2] | ||
| Michigan | ᚷ[11] | ||
| Pennsylvania | ᚷ[11] | ||
| Rhode Island | ᚷ[11] | ||
| Virginia | ᚷ[11] | ||
| California | ᚷ*[11] | ||
| Nevada | ᚷ*[11] | ||
| New Jersey | ᚷ*[11] | ᚷ[9] | |
| North Carolina | ᚷ*[11] | ||
| Washington | ᚷ*[11] |
*select local jurisdictions (vs. statewide use)