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FrankRep
10-26-2009, 04:27 PM
Open Source Election Software Revealed (http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5544-open-source-election-software-revealed)


Alex Newman | John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
26 October 2009


As a response to persistent concerns about the integrity of electronic voting systems across the country, an organization dedicated to election transparency announced last week the release of part of its open source election software for public review.

Through a collaborative effort between state and local elections officials and technology experts, the group aims to create federally certified voting software that will restore trust and transparency in elections by allowing anyone to inspect the code. Proprietary voting systems used in recent elections have come under fire for secrecy, unreliability and a host of other problems.

“Premier Election Systems is practically a billboard for the necessity of open source voting systems,” said David Williams of ITWire (http://www.itwire.com/content/view/28715/1141/), referring to a host of problems in the systems produced by the company formerly known as Diebold. “Only open source can offer confidence through the accountability and verifiability which transparency offers. A closed source system can never be trusted wholeheartedly because its inner operations are a mystery.”

The elections software is part of project ‘Trust the Vote’ dating back to 2006 and sponsored by the Open Source Digital Voting (http://osdv.org/) (OSDV) Foundation, a non-profit corporation based in California. The software code release announcement was made at a panel discussion that included the California Secretary of State, the co-founder of the watch-dog Electronic Frontier Foundation and other prominent people associated with elections and technology.

“How we vote has become just as important as who we vote for,” said OSDV co-founder Gregory Miller, according to a Wired report about the project entitled ‘Nation’s First Open Source Election Software Released (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/open-source).’ “We think it is imperative that the infrastructure on which we cast and count our ballots is an infrastructure that is publicly owned.”

He added that the effort was not aimed at shutting down commercial voting system companies, but was instead “catalyzing a rebirth of the industry.” The foundation’s final product will be available for licensing to manufacturers and election districts and is being widely praised so far as an overdue development. The goal is to offer a system that meets the demands of election officials and the public in terms of reliability, security and transparency, according to Miller.

“We believe the OSDV is a breakthrough organization bringing together the best and brightest in technology and policy into a synergistic, meritocratic community focused on designing and developing guidelines and specifications for high assurance digital voting services,” offered the staff of Xtreme Open Source (http://www.xtremeopensource.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34399:osdv-foundation-developing-open-source-elections-technology&catid=60:open-source&Itemid=26), a news service that tracks developments in the fields of open source hardware and software. “A hallmark distinction between OSDV and other similar efforts is what the OSDV does not do: OSDV has no interest in lobbying, political advocacy, or being a change force in election reform outside of making technology that anyone can see, touch and try.”

There have been other vote-related software projects launched that bear some resemblance, but this one is novel in a number of ways. “One first is that the software is targeted at U.S. elections specifically, and on providing automation of election operations in ways that match the existing practices and needs of U.S. elections officials,” explained the other OSDV co-founder, John Sebes, on a blog for the project (http://www.trustthevote.org/). “The many well-meaning efforts on open-source Web apps for Internet voting, for example, are laudable work, but not what most election officials actually need right now or can legally deploy and use for U.S. government elections.”

So far the group has seven states interested and almost a dozen others in talks, according to Wired. If all of the states that have expressed interest actually adopt the system, almost two thirds of American voters will be using the software.

The notion of casting ballots on secret software — especially after the plethora of documented problems, “irregularities,” and questions — does not sit well with the voting public. An HBO documentary entitled ‘Hacking Democracy (http://tiny.cc/Llxe7)’ and countless activists have highlighted very significant issues in the election process that need to be resolved.

But with the opportunity for every programmer in the country to examine the software, this solution may be just what is needed to improve the people’s trust in their voting infrastructure. Hopefully the effort will succeed.


SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5544-open-source-election-software-revealed

pcosmar
10-26-2009, 04:30 PM
:D Bigger grin :D
I will be watching this.
With hope. ;)