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Should Voting Software Be Open Source?

Posted by Cliff on from the what's-counting-your-votes dept.

jallen02 asks: "CNN has a quick little piece in their technology section about the electronic voting systems and their security. They ask, 'What about security?' with regards to the electronic voting systems. And then a researcher from AT&T labs is quoted in the article. Basically, saying the systems should be open sourced, and he quotes the party line for open source regarding security: more eyeballs means more flaws are found and fixed. The big question raised here is ripe for debate.. should electronic voting systems software be opened for the public to see?"

4 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Should Voting Software Be Open Source? by Per+Wigren · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Simple question, simple answer:

    Of course!

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  2. Summary of comments to come. by tunah · · Score: 0, Redundant
    1. Yep.
    2. Wow, I'm a troll, look at me!
    3. Profit!
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  3. exactly by tps12 · · Score: 1, Redundant

    As programmers, we're all aware that perfect, bug-free software just doesn't exist in the real world. Given that the voting software will have bugs, isn't it better that they be secret for something as vital as this?

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  4. Doesn't Make Any Difference by reallocate · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Voting software needs to work and be secure. Whether or not it's closed source ot open source is not important.

    In principal, you could argue that the public has a right to see the code itself, but, in reality, the public wouldn't know what it was looking at. Just as the public has no choice but to trust "experts" about the closed voting code, the public would have to trust "experts" about open voting code.

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