EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | charles sherrouse
Organization : | green party member
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Section Comments
Section : | 4
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Comment : | The following comments apply generally to the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, Volume I, Sections 4, 6 and 7. All voting system software, including operating systems and cryptographic algorithms, should be open source and standards based. Code should be published at least one year before the election. The tested and certified version should be published at least 120 days before the election, followed by a 60 day comment and bug reporting period, with final certification at least 30 days before the election. Open source software allows transparency and public scrutiny. It allows much more thorough testing, evaluation and critical analysis. Open source software has proven to be considerably more secure and robust than proprietary code. Open source software has a remarkable track record with both commercial products and nonprofit community code projects. Well known examples include Linux and BSD operating systems, Mozilla Firefox web browser, and OpenOffice. There should be an independent vote verification system, such as a printed copy of the ballot or screen capture, apart from the voting machine, that records each ballot as it is cast. Additional information on open software and its application to voting systems: Open Source Initiative (OSI) www.opensource.org SourceForge sourceforge.net Open Voting Consortium (OVC) www.openvotingconsortium.org Black Box Voting www.blackboxvoting.org Open Voting Systems - Mann www.cpsr.org/prevsite/conferences/cfp93/mann.html