[CAVO] OSET Foundation

[Gregory Miller]

Hello Larry-
Weighing in here on your comment back to our General Counsel.  Thanks for
your reply; bear in mind we're considerably down the road from "start-up"
in some ways, yet despite our backgrounds and experiences, after 8-years we
still feel much like a start-up.

That's really because we've only just celebrated our 2nd anniversary of
winning a nearly 7-year protracted IRS battle for our full tax exempt
status as a 501.c.3 charitable organization. So, it can be cogently argued
that we _are_ in some ways still very much a start-up as a non-profit
foundation (although the determination was made effect of as of April 2007.)

We agree on the philosophy of "getting all the wood behind a single arrow,"
particularly in this unique sector of government I.T. reform and
innovation. This particular type of technology carries with it a very
important mantle of "critical democracy infrastructure" -- a mantle we hope
might one day gain Congressional recognition.

We hope CAVO and like-kind advocacy groups can evangelize (more so than we
legally can) 2 important ideas (one that certainly can and should reduce to
legislation):

1. Government Priority:  That election technology is, in fact, "critical
democracy infrastructure" (a phrase we coined several years ago in
government relations work with both the House Rules and Senate
Administration committee Chairs).  True recognition of such, at both State
and Federal levels would, we believe elevate government's attention to the
near desperate needs of jurisdictions to more easily acquire technology
that has a greater priority and importance with government as a component
of critical infrastructure.  That could translate into a number of helpful
initiatives.  Now we are NOT advocates of another HAVA funding (we saw what
happened to that $3B 13 years ago), but we do think affording election
technology the same level of attention that other government I.T. receives
with respect to its criticality and required operational continuity is
urgent.

2. Procurement Reform:  That states and counties in particular need a
holistic overhaul of procurement regulations.  Today's regulations not only
lock out new and innovative prospective suppliers of technology by erecting
artificial and fiscal barriers to entry in the form of (at times) draconian
terms for bidding (e.g., monstrous performance and surety bonds), but they
also hardwire archaic if not obsolete approach, process, and arguably
philosophy about how technology is acquired (e.g., including licensing).

We considered this latter idea.  However, it meant a complete reinvention
of ourselves and our mission because it is state-level hand-to-hand
combat.  Aside from the U.C.C., there really isn't any uniform procurement
regulation schema.  But there is some difficult and archaic thinking
embedded in the contracting processes of I.T. procurement agencies.  And it
would take a well lubricated advocacy engine to bring about that kind of
change.  Perhaps CAVO is the answer.  There is precedent here too.  From
our Board Advisers, to the EAC, to NIST, even to the Department of Homeland
Security (btw: a source of funding in excess of $50,000 that our Counsel
accidentally overlooked), and several States' Secretary Offices, there is a
growing consensus that innovation is being illogically blocked by archaic
procurement regulations.

[On that last note: one thing that seems to be building momentum for the
recognition of "critical democracy infrastructure" is the engagement of
Advisers to our Board who have a strong interest in this regard, and which
has resulted in DHS taking a close look at some of our security software
we're building for access framework to certain elections administration web
services we're building.  So, there is some basis for advocacy in this
regard.]

Best Regards
Greg

On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 3:27 PM, Lawrence Rosen <lrosen at rosenlaw.com> wrote:

Thanks Christine, you've obviously done a good job with startup funding. :-)
>
>
>
> One of the benefits of open source development is that we have an
> incentive to cooperate. I look forward to doing so.
>
>
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> /Larry
>
>
>
-- 
*Gregory Miller*
Co-Executive Director & Chief Development Officer
*OSET* *Foundation* | *TrustTheVote* *Project*
www.OSETFoundation.org <http://www.osetfoundation.org/> |
www.trustthevote.org
*Twitter*: @TrustTheVote | @OSET
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