Open Source Electronic Voting Progress Limited

An anonymous reader points us to a story about how the problems with electronic voting mostly stem from one source: the lack of mandated standardization. The LinuxInsider article goes on to suggest that once the issue of a universal voting platform is solved, the way is paved for open-source software to address concerns over accuracy and transparency. Though the article states that "no open source program for voting machines yet exists," it should be noted that such software was successfully tested earlier this month. Quoting: "People debate the merits of e-voting for a variety of reasons, including suspicion of new technologies and a general distrust of politics, according to Jamie McKown, Wiggins professor of government and polity at the College of the Atlantic. 'Reports on e-voting security often de-contextualize the history of voter fraud in this country, as if boxes were somehow assumed to be better. You constantly hear calls for paper trails, and open and free inspection of voting machine source code. But it's a very thorny issue and one that has a lot of facets,' McKown told LinuxInsider."

Comments

US' decentralized elections are the problem

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

the decentralized nature of american elections, where, in some cases, countirs are free to chose the method of posting and counting votes are the greatest barrier for standardization.

here in brasil, where elections has always been centralized by the federal judicial branch, creating a standard method of voting is much easier.

here we used to have a starndard canvas sack and standard paper balots, now we have a single, federaly mandated model of electronic voting machines.

both proccesses were|are hardened against tampering. i can usually vote and choose my candidates in less than a minute, even in general elections where i have to choose: 1 president, 2 senators, 1 federal deputy, 1 governor, 1 state deputy. in local elections where i only need to choose a mayor a representative, 20 seconds are enough. it's made easier by the fact that every candidate is identified by a unique number composed of . so the voting machine is incredibly simple and convenient to use. a numeric keypad + a button to cast a blank vote (if you want to vote only for mayor but not for a representative, for exemple), a button to clear the vote and a confirm button.

if you USians want, i'm pretty sure the brasilian govt. would be more than glad to license the technology.