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US Elections Dominated By Closed Source. Again.
An anonymous reader writes "Another American election is almost here, and while electronic voting is commonplace, it is still overwhelmingly run by closed source, proprietary systems. It has been shown that many of these systems can be compromised (and because they are closed, there may be holes we simply cannot know about). Plus they are vulnerable to software bugs and are often based on unstable, closed-source operating systems. By the inherent nature of closed software, when systems are (optionally!) certified by registrars, there is no proof that they will behave the same on election day as in tests. The opportunities for fraud, tampering and malfunction are rampant. But nonetheless, there is very little political will for open source voting, let alone simple measures like end-to-end auditable voting systems or more radical approaches like open source governance. Why do we remain in the virtual dark ages, when clearly we have better alternatives readily available?"
here in Minnesota, with the Al Franken debacle, even having paper ballots didn't help so much. With every successive challenge and recount, more ballots were magically found with Franken's name on them that had been previously undiscovered. Oh, but these were left in someone's car! Oh, these were found in a closet!
Paper doesn't ensure integrity.
To me the conflict is between the secrecy of the ballot and the ability to verify results. If there is no way to link a completed ballot to an eligible voter, you can never be 100% sure.
(Personally I'm just as worried about eligibility - it was shown positively that enough felons voted in this election to tip the scales to Franken, but once an election is certified - even if verifiable fraud happened - there's no way to change anything.)