| | |  Editorials | Opinions | November 2009 
Need for Worldwide 'Open-Source' Voting Systems
 Guillermo Ramón Adames y Suari - PVNN
November 02, 2009
 |  | I might be too idealistic in considering that we should forget a bit about politics and consider systems that were developed by India, Brazil and Venezuela among others, and truly give the step to offer to the citizens of the world a truly 'open source' reliable system. |  | | |
The principle of voting in the United States is that votes are cast in secret but tallied in public. Where is the principle of secrecy as stated in the Constitution and in the Constitutions of so many countries?
With the current electronic voting system the procedure is quite similar but has another dimension. You are in front of a machine. Who knows how it works! And you are supposed to accept whatever the machine crashes and that is supposed to be the absolute truth. Under which principle? In a recent survey on how Americans felt about electronic voting, James S. who is a computer specialist summarized the whole feeling in this sentence:
"I do not like electronic voting machines; they are programmed by people that have political ideas". This shows lack of trust in the system, in the authorities and the legal system that is supposed to insure voting credibility.
Current voting systems operate with software which is a trade secret owned by the voting machine vendors. Those same vendors pay for their systems to be tested, and the results of those tests are also trade secrets on " bank or military security" levels under the sole control of the vendors.
Something is wrong. Commercial software secrets are not a justification to not inform the people according to the Constitution. The usual claims for secrecy are not a reason to break the Constitutional guarantees as granted to each citizen.
Simple: Either the Constitution is wrong or the operational principles of electronic voting are wrong.
I simply do not see HOW the foundations of a country (whichever) can be contested on the grounds of commercial competition and software secrecy. For example, Microsoft does not publicly release its Web server's source code: Microsoft will make the source code available to large customers under license. The source code of voting systems is not available for inspection even by other counties that purchase these systems and certainly not for inspection by you or me. Can the US government overrule commercial principles when the national security is considered to be at risk?
We do not know what lurks in the programming of the some vendors. Fortunately, ES&S and Sequoia have promised San Francisco and Alameda counties that they will cooperate with source code disclosure rules if the state requires it. Unfortunately, the current California secretary of state opposes such disclosure rules. The Open Voting Consortium (www.openvoting.org) is creating a registry where vendors can publish voting systems technology. This registry will include requirements for what must be disclosed, such as software source code, specifications, documentation and hardware designs. While vendors may retain proprietary rights to the software, vendors must allow testing, experimentation, analyses and publication by anyone.
I might be too idealistic in considering that we should forget a bit about politics and consider systems that were developed by India, Brazil and Venezuela among others, and truly give the step to offer to the citizens of the world a truly "open source" reliable system. Worldwide available. Worldwide inspected. But mostly, worldwide improved. This certainly is my professional bias acquired in the UN: When in one way or other, worldwide cooperation amongst people of goodwill, with different beliefs, different creeds, different political backgrounds different genders, different races, different religions got together to solve a problem common to all of us.
I sincerely hope I can see it happening.
Guillermo Ramón Adames y Suari is a former electoral officer of the United Nations Organization. Contact him at gui.voting(at)gmail.com |
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