California Interested In Open Source E-Voting Solutions
Date : 26 Sep 2008 Category : Business
Techdirt
With so many problems with various e-voting systems, many have wondered why various state governments don't simply require any e-voting system to be open sourced. It makes a tremendous amount of sense. Any trustworthy voting process needs to require transparency in how the votes are recorded and counted. Letting a hidden algorithm do the counting makes no sense. Open source e-voting code would be open to scrutiny, and would almost certainly lead to fewer problems and greater security. Yet, for some reason, election officials have always bought into the e-voting vendors' false claims that open source code is somehow dangerous to an election.
It looks like that may be changing. California's Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, who has been a major critic of e-voting vendors, is now saying that open sourcing e-voting systems could help fix many of the flaws found in today's systems. It wouldn't solve all the problems, but it would be a huge step forward.
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It looks like that may be changing. California's Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, who has been a major critic of e-voting vendors, is now saying that open sourcing e-voting systems could help fix many of the flaws found in today's systems. It wouldn't solve all the problems, but it would be a huge step forward.
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