EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Ron Crane
Organization : | N/A
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Section Comments
Section : | .20.2.1.3
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Comment : | 15. The Guidelines do not even mention open source software and firmware, let alone recognize their security advantages. The Guidelines permit vendors to keep their source and other documentation secret from everyone but the "test labs" (the same entities that have, to date, approved some very insecure e-voting systems) and the "software repository." For example, Vol. II, §2.1.3 expressly permits vendors to designate, without limitation, "documents, or portions of documents, containing proprietary information not approved for public release" which must not be released "unless disclosure is legally compelled." This deprives the public of essential information about how its votes are presented, recorded, tabulated, and reported. The promotion of commerce via the recognition of trade secrets, and the "advancement of science and the useful arts" via the recognition of copyrights and patents, take second place to enabling direct public scrutiny of our elections processes. The Guidelines must grant the public timely, complete, unfettered access to all source code for all software, firmware, and programmable devices.