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One U.S. Election-System Vendor Is Using Developers in Serbia (computerworld.com)
The Open Source Election Technology Foundation is trying to move U.S. voting machines from "proprietary, vendor-owned systems to ones that are owned 'by the people of the United States.'" But in the meantime, Slashdot reader dcblogs brings this report from ComputerWorld:
One major election technology company, Dominion Voting Systems, develops its systems in the U.S. and Canada but also has an office in Belgrade, Serbia. It was recently advertising openings for four senior software developers in Belgrade... Dominion said it takes measures "to ensure the accuracy, integrity and security of the software we create for our products...."
Alan Paller, president and director of research at the Sans Technology Institute...said that "one shouldn't feel complacent about maintaining software development and manufacturing all within the United States because foreign agencies have successfully placed technically competent spies on the payroll of American technology companies." But Suzanne Mello-Stark, a forensic computer scientist at Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a focus on voting machines, wants software and hardware transparency in voting systems. "The systems are proprietary and we don't know what the code looks like," said Mello-Stark.
Alan Paller, president and director of research at the Sans Technology Institute...said that "one shouldn't feel complacent about maintaining software development and manufacturing all within the United States because foreign agencies have successfully placed technically competent spies on the payroll of American technology companies." But Suzanne Mello-Stark, a forensic computer scientist at Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a focus on voting machines, wants software and hardware transparency in voting systems. "The systems are proprietary and we don't know what the code looks like," said Mello-Stark.
Serbian or American, the issue with electronic voting is that it's not transparent to everyone, and can be rigged by a very few.
So moving the software to the USA, making it open source etc. won't guarantee the election is not rigged. Because the people voting on the day cannot check the machine is running the correct software and all the parts involved in counting are running the correct software.
That's why there needs to be human verifiable items, like paper trails that can be checked by the person voting and the person counting and the candidates overseeing the count, and any interested observer....
Proprietary voting machines, create distrust in the voting system and should be phased out, but 'open source electronic' voting machines shouldn't be phased in in their stead. Paper, human verifiable votes are whats needed.
Proprietary machines and software have no place in a Democracy (or a Democratic Republic). But they have very important roles in a plutocracy.
A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
I also recently found out about Dominion Belgrade and was a bit confused. But then I realized that this actually makes sense. Rigging elections is not as easy as you might think. Better build on prior experience.
The Open Source Election Technology Foundation is trying to move U.S. voting machines from "proprietary, vendor-owned systems to ones that are owned 'by the people of the United States.'"
If they want Open Source, wouldn't it be "owned" by the people of the whole world?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Elbonia is probably pissed that they missed out on this opportunity.
juicy gov't contracts should be creating jobs in America. Crap like this is the closest thing to socialism in America. Seeing it offshored when I know several competent programmers who are out of work (self taught guys, trying getting a job w/o a college degree and try going back to school in your 40s when tuition's $10k/year and you've got kids about to hit college yourself). Fuck them.
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We ought to have FOSS election software and hardware, and have a centralized VPN to avoid issues with open wifi connections. The voting machines in the US is horribly broken. Oh, and while you are at it just make a centralized biometrics database for the US and incorporate them in the voting machines.
Wonderful. The Serbians love Americans after the bombing of Belgrade. They'd never do anything to mess up a US election.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Perhaps you do not understand the nature of open source. The physical location of the programmers does not matter. Anyone from around the world can see and make contributions to the code base. Instead of relying on "Trust", the code can be vetted and verified by candidates, political parties or anyone interested.
Open source is not required to verify the source code. Proprietary closed (as in no outside modifications) can be published for public inspection. The public can build a binary to compare against what is on the machine. However the public needs no right to modify or redistribute to do so.
For many decades some proprietary software has been available under both binary and source codes licenses. The later allowing the license holders to view and modify the source code. It is usually much more expensive but worth it in my opinion. It allows one to incorporate proprietary software into one's product and not be utterly dependent on the vendor for bug fixes. In other words it lets one retain control of one's project. This could also be a non-FOSS option for a government agency.
Premier Election Solutions
Formerly called: Diebold Election Systems, Inc
Industry: Electronic Voting hardware, Consulting
Fate: Acquired by Dominion Voting Systems
-- wikipedia
The fact that they acquired them after they were disgraced speaks volumes.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Proprietary machines and software have no place in a Democracy (or a Democratic Republic). But they have very important roles in a plutocracy.
Proprietary software can have its source code inspected and modified by its customers. It just requires a source code license rather than a binary license. It happens all the time. Open source is not the only way to verify and have control of the software.
So they current have US and Canadian developers and might be adding EU developers. Maybe they want to sell their machines in the EU? Just offering another possibility to investigate.
Yeah, this settles it, it's going to be a landslide victory for Trump.
"The physical location of the programmers does not matter." True. And whether they're working on open or closed source has zero bearing on that fact.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Socialism is, by and large, the redistribution of wealth to ensure a minimum standard of living. Americans by and large want this but they're also very uncomfortable with it because they have puritanism crammed into their skulls when they're young (defenseless) children. This is why you see reports of white men overwhelmingly believing that a) the gov't caused all their problems and b) the gov't isn't doing enough to help them.
So crap like the Military Industrial Complex and gov't waste is how we manage to get these sort of people to accept the help they need. Sorta like Ayn Rand living off Social Security at the end of her life. Well, exactly like that, actually.
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Only when it comes to elections, the population are really the customer..
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Which piece of FOSS would that be? I've heard of one attempt to put it into the Linux Kernel but that was caught immediately.
I find it offensive that the submitter and editors emphasized that the software is made in Serbia and highlighted it in the title. They could have said "outside USA" but I guess when you say "Serbia" it sounds a lot more serious. Looking at some of the posts here I see that for some of you it actually does.
Crooked software is made in many countries. Perhaps the choice of the company wasn't really based on where the company was based but the quality of service. There are many excellent software companies in Serbia. Just check this out. And this, and this...
I get the point that voting software is too sensitive to be outsourced but if you're going to outsource it then software company based in Serbia is probably one of the better choices.
Dominion Voting Systems donated to the Clinton Fund. They were also one of the machine voting systems that appears to have irregularities.
http://bit.ly/EJUSA_Democracy_...
http://www.caucus99percent.com...
-]Phreak Out[-
'ceptin' Alice.
If you want to purge the ethnically impure, use Serbs! Heroic at massacres of woman, children and unarmed men. Real heroes.
different things entirely.
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"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."
Spoken by some nobody, a J. Stalin.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Why does the US have this fascination of trying to "improve" how people vote? There's all these systems to let people vote electronically, on-line, or through the mail. Heck, even with paper ballots the US has a history of trying different things. Just remember Florida, 2000, and chads.
Marking an X next to the person you want to vote for has worked for a long time, it's simple, and doesn't need fancy new equipment which introduce new ways to alter the outcome of elections. The old system isn't broken and doesn't need to be fixed.
Only when it comes to elections, the population are really the customer..
No. The customers are the government officials running the election. Citizens are users of this government equipment, the voting "machine".
Seriously, if they are going overseas and allowing others to manipulate our data, might as well make it Russia. At least you will get better code.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I heard that he left the US after the 2000 elections and emigrated to Chad, where he's been their chief election commissioner
Voting should start at 12:01 AM Friday and conclude at 12:00 PM Sunday. Frankly, the election weekend should be moved to September to avoid winter weather ever being a factor.
The ballots should be paper, the counting should be by hand in public view, controlled by non-voting or third-party people as neither the Tastycrat nor Fingerlican machines can be trusted with this task.
Lastly: NO EXIT POLLING nor predictions before the polls close, period. The role of the Fourth Estate is to inform, not fucking suppress turnout.