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Ask HN: Why Isn't Open Source Voting Software Mandated?

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11–20 of 134 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why Isn't Open Source Voting Software Mandated?

#11

There really isn't a good case to be made for electronic voting at all. Paper is much simpler, more reliable and has none of these issues.

Parent could be talking about the scanning and tabulation. In theory, there shouldn’t be anything problematic with “you vote on paper, and then slide it through a scanner, from whence it goes into a sealed bin”. Then you can still hand-recount.

My state uses this method already.

Re: Ask HN: Why Isn't Open Source Voting Software Mandated?

#12

There really isn't a good case to be made for electronic voting at all. Paper is much simpler, more reliable and has none of these issues.

Parent could be talking about the scanning and tabulation. In theory, there shouldn’t be anything problematic with “you vote on paper, and then slide it through a scanner, from whence it goes into a sealed bin”. Then you can still hand-recount.

Yes there is. A computer counter is worse than a computer ballot printer. You have to have it as distributed as possible to make it as expensive as possible. A single counting or handful of counting machines makes it one machine to take over to do anything you want.

Re: Ask HN: Why Isn't Open Source Voting Software Mandated?

#14
The reason is simple: there is no open source voting software lobbyist in Washington DC with financing for congress people's elections. Anytime a Lobbyist is partially financing a congress person's election, they get to "participate" in that congress person's legislation within the Lobbyist's area of specialization. I wager there are Lobbyists for the commercial voting systems, and that is what prevents an open source alternative from even being considered.

Re: Ask HN: Why Isn't Open Source Voting Software Mandated?

#15
Everyone here is talking about paper ballots. Good, but this ignores OP's question. Most voting machines, even if they have paper trails, have some software in them. Just saying "paper ballots" doesn't address the issue.

To answer OP's question, I personally have no idea but think it should be. Much of our scientific work is open sourced (e.g. codes from national labs, NASA, etc). But I think a lot of people don't understand what open source is or means. They think you can't have open sourced software and still privately own it. We still honestly haven't figured out how to deal with this adequately in the law (there's a post on the front page about FB taking their OS project, and these posts happen at least once a month). People don't demand it because frankly people aren't very tech literate.

Re: Ask HN: Why Isn't Open Source Voting Software Mandated?

#16

Everyone here is talking about paper ballots. Good, but this ignores OP's question. Most voting machines, even if they have paper trails, have some software in them. Just saying "paper ballots" doesn't address the issue. To answer OP's question, I personally have no idea but think it should be. Much of our scientific work is open sourced (e.g. codes from national labs, NASA, etc). But I think a lot of people don't un…

The answer to OP's question is... why have software at all? Why not just paper? Why do you want a 'voting machine' at all? What's wrong with paper?

The solution to a problem that should not be solved with software is not to have different software.

Re: Ask HN: Why Isn't Open Source Voting Software Mandated?

#18

There really isn't a good case to be made for electronic voting at all. Paper is much simpler, more reliable and has none of these issues.

Parent could be talking about the scanning and tabulation. In theory, there shouldn’t be anything problematic with “you vote on paper, and then slide it through a scanner, from whence it goes into a sealed bin”. Then you can still hand-recount.

In my country (UK) the results are known pretty much for certain the second the polls close. The results for certain are known within a few hours. We use paper and hand counting. Why do you want to use scanning? What problems do you think it solves that we haven't solved with paper and hand counting?

Re: Ask HN: Why Isn't Open Source Voting Software Mandated?

#19
Because open source software doesn't make electronic voting 100% foolproof either. It's hard to prove the software running on the systems is the same as the source code you've read.

And you still have other issues like radio waves being emitted based on the computers' calculations, which (in theory) makes it possible to determine what you've voted. Researchers in The Netherlands proved that it was possible with the machines there, which is why we went back to pencil and paper.

Re: Ask HN: Why Isn't Open Source Voting Software Mandated?

#20

Everyone here is talking about paper ballots. Good, but this ignores OP's question. Most voting machines, even if they have paper trails, have some software in them. Just saying "paper ballots" doesn't address the issue. To answer OP's question, I personally have no idea but think it should be. Much of our scientific work is open sourced (e.g. codes from national labs, NASA, etc). But I think a lot of people don't un…

The answer to OP's question is... why have software at all? Why not just paper? Why do you want a 'voting machine' at all? What's wrong with paper? The solution to a problem that should not be solved with software is not to have different software.

We already have voting machines in use! That's the software that needs to be open-sourced.
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