I’ve always been sceptical of electronic voting systems but this new open source e-voting initiative addresses a number of my concerns.
Why is an open-source system better?
1. The code can be checked for bugs at any time making it more transparent and probably more robust and trustworthy.
2. By using off-the-shelf kit, it’s much cheaper than using purpose built booths and consoles.
3. It contains a voter-verifiable and fully auditable paper record that can be preserved and is recountable.
Provided security and privacy can be protected, this new attempt to promote e-voting is worth a look.
4 comments ↓
[...] ahem, Transformational Government writes today about the potential benefits of a recent open source e-voting project. Tom suggests that an open source solution for e-voting solves a number of the problems that have [...]
Even with standard kit a computerised system which also prints a paper record is going to be much more expensive than a purely paper-based system as well as higher risk unless the paper trail is always extensively checked.
As the author of the Free Software Foundation’s open source e-voting package back in 1999 I’ve had quite a bit of experience of these issues. It’s clear to me that whilst an open source e-voting system is preferable to a closed-source proprietary alternative, opening the source does not solve many of the fundamental problems with e-voting.
Note also that any e-voting system with a paper trail can’t be used remotely so we’re talking about kiosks in polling stations which the UK government has explicitly ruled out as an option.
I’ve more academically addressed why open source isn’t enough for e-voting here: http://www.jasonkitcat.com/h/n/WRITING/evoting/ALL/89/
Thanks Jason, that’s very helpful. Paper and pencil works pretty well for me still.
Did you see that Ohio is leaving $22 million of voting equipment in storage for the next election?
Tom,
You might also be interested in http://www.heliosvoting.org/
Jeni
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