Ben Adida

Ben Adida is a prominent figure in the field of election technology and security. He is the Executive Director and co-founder of VotingWorks, the only non-profit voting system vendor in the United States.23 With a strong background in computer science and cryptography, Adida has dedicated his career to using technology to empower individuals and enhance democratic processes.

Professional Background

Adida received his PhD in Computer Science from the Cryptography and Information Security group at MIT, where he was advised by Ron Rivest.1 His academic focus was on election security, making him a world-renowned expert in this field.2

Throughout his career, Adida has held several leadership positions in technology companies:

• Led Engineering at Clever
• Headed Seller Engineering at Square
• Managed the Identity Team and Mozilla Persona project at Mozilla1

Contributions to Open-Source and Voting Technology

Adida is known for creating and maintaining the Helios Voting System, an open-source online voting system.14 He is also a co-creator of the RDFa structured data standard.1 At VotingWorks, Adida leads the team in developing transparent, simple, and secure voting technology.2

Advocacy and Non-Profit Work

In addition to his work at VotingWorks, Adida has been involved with other non-profit organizations:

• Former board member of Creative Commons13
• Regularly speaks about election security at leading conferences2

Philosophy and Approach

Adida's work is driven by a commitment to transparency and public accountability in election technology. Under his leadership, VotingWorks:

• Develops open-source voting systems
• Provides public access to all source code and documentation
• Collaborates with leading academics in voting security and usability2

This approach aims to build trust in election technology through openness and demonstrable security.