> Partnerships are the way forward for a project like this.
In theory, that sounds nice. But keep in mind that introducing more stakeholders also has significant downsides.
For example, government organizations are complicated, slow-moving beasts, so introducing more governments would likely slow things even more. Parts of San Francisco government first expressed interest in open source voting systems over eight years ago, and we are still in the "discussion" phase!
Introducing more stakeholders also increases the likelihood of scope creep on an already ambitious project, because other jurisdictions have their own interests, requirements, and priorities. I believe this is the main reason that Los Angeles County hasn't shown interest in partnering with other counties on their own voting system project [1] (VSAP, a project that may or may not turn out to be open source). It also introduces the question of how such a partnership would be governed.
Basically, it is politically challenging enough to get even one jurisdiction on board. So I would lean towards establishing such a partnership or organization to coordinate and maintain improvements only after an initial system is built and working.
In theory, that sounds nice. But keep in mind that introducing more stakeholders also has significant downsides.
For example, government organizations are complicated, slow-moving beasts, so introducing more governments would likely slow things even more. Parts of San Francisco government first expressed interest in open source voting systems over eight years ago, and we are still in the "discussion" phase!
Introducing more stakeholders also increases the likelihood of scope creep on an already ambitious project, because other jurisdictions have their own interests, requirements, and priorities. I believe this is the main reason that Los Angeles County hasn't shown interest in partnering with other counties on their own voting system project [1] (VSAP, a project that may or may not turn out to be open source). It also introduces the question of how such a partnership would be governed.
Basically, it is politically challenging enough to get even one jurisdiction on board. So I would lean towards establishing such a partnership or organization to coordinate and maintain improvements only after an initial system is built and working.
[1] https://www.lavote.net/vsap