Where free software should be required by law

Where free software should be required by law

Posted Sep 12, 2002 9:11 UTC (Thu) by beejaybee (guest, #1581)
Parent article: Where free software should be required by law

"There is no external audit trail, no way of verifying that they are recording votes as they were actually cast. Trade secret law forbids the inspection of the code in the systems. One just has to trust the vendor that the results are correct."

And I bet that no-one in the Florida electoral office was priveleged to hear any explanations as to why this should be. Scary stuff, when the corporations who develop this sort of software are already gross abusers of the lobby system.

Rig a few votes (or a lot, if neccessary) then claim that "the people" have decided? What price democracy now?

There are numerous other issues with electronic voting - personation is one of the more obvious ones - but the system really does need to be sound. The old technology ("X" on a ballot paper) isn't perfect but it seems to be more so than the "modern" alternatives.

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