HAVA Amendment Initiative

VoteMatrix founder Robert Freeman would like to assist our representatives in authoring a bill to Congress wherein the Help America Vote Act of 2002 is amended to provide citizens with an open and standardized database of election information.

For a diagram or more info, visit the VoteMatrix HAVA Amendment page.

Amendment Details

Each state will be required to submit information specific to their ballots and precincts to this federally run standardized database. This will only require the development of a web service and data standard, providing complete, open, and free election information to any application.

Current Situation

Currently, there is no standard or single source for this information, which is a significant roadblock to dispensing election information to the people. In many cases each county election office stores this data differently and most do not provide a data feed of any sort.

Cost and Benefit

For the relatively small expenditure at the Federal level (approximately $10 Million or less + $1 Million per year) managed by the EAC, this program and the collaborative solutions developed to utilize it will save state and local elections agencies millions of dollars annually which are currently expended in developing and supporting proprietary data feeds and software interfaces.  Voters will gain access to new tools utilizing this information, the media will gain simpler access and greater insight into elections, and the US can lead the way for democracy worldwide by sharing this new open standard with other nations.