SF Elections Commission Resolution

Summary of the Resolution

The San Francisco Elections Commission passed a resolution formally endorsing the development of an open source voting system for the city. As the body responsible for overseeing the administration of elections in San Francisco, the Commission's support represented a critical institutional endorsement of the open source approach to election technology.

The resolution expressed the Commission's view that transparency in election technology is essential to maintaining public trust in the democratic process. Commissioners noted that while San Francisco's elections are administered with professionalism and integrity, the use of proprietary software whose inner workings cannot be publicly reviewed creates an unnecessary barrier to the independent verification that voters deserve.

The Commission's resolution called for a thorough evaluation of the technical, financial, and regulatory requirements for implementing an open source voting system. It recommended that the city engage with the open source software community, election security researchers, and accessibility experts to ensure that any new system would meet the highest standards of security, usability, and compliance with federal and state election law.

The resolution also addressed the importance of paper ballots as a component of any new voting system, reaffirming the Commission's commitment to maintaining a physical record of every vote cast that can be independently audited. This combination of open source software and paper ballot verification was identified as the gold standard for election security and public accountability.