Electronic voting: Free Software and transparency are not enough

[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for
this link. ]

“The report also argues that open source software
offers little transparency because the visibility of the code means
nothing to the untutored eye, and is an example of “security
through obscurity” making the contentious assertion that “taking a
proprietary software product and disclosing its full source code to
the general public will result in a complete forfeiture of the
software’s security.” If that is indeed the case then the code
isn’t good enough for voting purposes.

“The report misunderstands the differences between patents,
copyright and trade secrets and how they affect free and open
source software, and makes a grand and inappropriate gesture by
proposing that if the US government were to mandate the disclosure
of the code used by current voting machines this “would open the
possibility of a government taking in violation of the United
States Constitution. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
prohibits the taking of private property without just
compensation,” suggesting that disclosure of the code (and any
faults in the code) that is used to register votes would be a
violation of citizens’ rights.”

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