____/ resonator80 on Sunday 15 July 2007 16:09 : \____
> Computerized voting systems (aka DREs or Direct Recording Electronic)
> must be based on an operating system, for example, Windows or Linux.
>
> Linux has the advantage of being open so that all the source code can
> be open. Windows source code will not be opened to anyone.
>
> Some people have argued that the basic Windows operating system can
> remain secret as long as the voting application program (i.e. C,
> Python, etc) is open.
>
> Here are some questions about such an arrangement.
>
> 1. Could someone tamper with the Windows OS or put in some additional
> code that would not be found in an inspection of the application
> program that could alter the results?
>
> 2. Could viruses and other malware affect the OS and, ultimately, an
> election without its effects being detected by examining the
> application program?
>
> Any other comments are welcom.
>
> Thanks,
> Bill Edelstein
> Baltimore, MD
Hi Bill,
I see that you are posting from Google Groups. If you search
comp.os.linux.advocacy for "voting" or "evoting" you will find many references
to previous items from the news that cover exactly these points. Here is the
most recent bunch which you may or may not find helpful:
Avante's (Not Very Good) Offer to New York Voters
,----[ Quote ]
| Providing open source software is a start. That way others can see the
| defects in the system’s design or view the intentional codes put in to rig an
| election (open source soft code would be open to the public and therefore
| would not need to be escrowed with the SBOE).
|
| Avante doesn’t want us to see how it has designed its voting computer to
| process and count our votes. If it did it would have used open source
| software, but it chose not to. It is only those vendors who choose to use
| secret proprietary source code that are required to escrow same so that at
| least the SBOE can see what is otherwise concealed from the public.
|
| Having chose to use secret software to process and count the votes, which
| Avante cannot fully escrow because they relied on Microsoft software to
| create its voting system, Avante now argues that since Kodak or some other
| hardware supplier isn’t going to give you the source code of the firmware for
| its scanners or printers either (it would be good to see this lower level
| firmware coding, but not nearly as important as seeing the software source
| code for the operating and tabulating functions of the computer), out should
| go the proverbial baby with the bathwater (and any ability to view the way
| the computer is programmed to tamper or not tamper with the vote).
|
| [...]
|
| If New York chose an open source code optical scan system, we’d have a voting
| system in place tomorrow, not two years from now. What Avante claims is
| impossible to create actually already exists.
`----
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_andi_nov_070712_avante_s__28not_very_g.htm
HR 811: Separating Truth From Fiction in E-voting Reform
,----[ Quote ]
| States wanting even greater transparency could mandate broader
| disclosure requirements (see proposed Sec. 301(a)(8)(B)(ii)(II)),
| including disposing of any non-disclosure requirement or even
| mandating the use of open source software. Moreover, vendors
| themselves could dispense with the non-disclosure agreement
| requirement, either by explicitly granting permission to share
| otherwise secret source code or by utilizing open source
| systems.
|
| [...]
|
| And once again, states may mandate any kind of additional disclosure,
| including an open source requirement, that they wish.
`----
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005308.php
Microsoft Muscles the NYS Legislature
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft’s proposed change to state law would effectively render
| our current requirements for escrow and the ability for independent
| review of source code in the event of disputes completely meaningless
| - and with it the protections the public fought so hard for.
`----
http://nyvv.org/blog/bolipariblog.html
State legislators keep e-voting apps in public hands
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft, whose Windows software is used in some of the vendors' devices,
| sought to amend the law to avoid the strict escrow provisions.
|
| [...]
|
| But Lipari had his worries before the matter was resolved. Earlier
| this month, in his blog, he called Microsoft the "800-pound gorilla
| of software development" as he called attention to its plans. Microsoft,
| he said, had been steadily lobbying legislators and circulating an
| unsigned document that would redefine the law.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/062507-state-legislators-keep-e-voting-apps.html?fsrc=rss-linux-news
E-Voting Raises New Questions in Brazil
,----[ Quote ]
| Some Brazilians are lobbying the tribunal to switch from Windows CE to
| an open-source operating system for the voting machines, since Microsoft
| Corp., citing trade secrecy, won't allow independent audits to make
| sure malicious programmers haven't inserted commands to "flip" votes
| from one candidate to another.
|
| [...]
|
| Fontoura confirmed that Brazil is considering a move away from
| crosoft's proprietary code -- "We are studying the possibility of using an
| open-source program like Linux in future elections. This would make the
| entire process much more transparent and far less expensive," he said.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060929/brazil_electronic_voting.html?.v=2
E-voting vendor succumbs to California source code demands
,----[ Quote ]
| "... there are serious concerns regarding the motivations and apparent
| personal agendas of a number of the currently proposed examiners," ES&S
| exec StevenPearson wrote in a letter agreeing to turn over the source
| code.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/28/evoting_source_code_disclosure/
John Edwards supports "open source" for voting systems
,----[ Quote ]
| John Edwards has become the first presidential candidate to support
| "open source code" for election systems.
`----
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2662
,----[ Quote ]
| "Nineteen machines had 21 screen freezes or system crashes, producing a
| blue screen and messages about an "illegal operation" or a "fatal
| exception error."
|
| "Especially with this blue-screen problem, you don't know whether it's
| the printer drivers, you don't know whether it's Diebold's own code or
| whether it's Windows,"
`----
http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6257
,----[ Quote ]
| Problems found in an audit of Diebold tabulation records from an Ohio
| November 2006 election raise questions about whether the database got
| corrupted during the tabulation of election results...
|
| The database is built from Microsoft's Jet database engine. The
| engine, according to Microsoft, is vulnerable to corruption when a lot
| of concurrent activity is happening with the database, such as what
| occurs on an election night [and Microsoft advises againt using Jet in
| a complex environment]...
|
| The report mentions that election staff had trouble with the server
| crashing and freezing on election night....
|
| The report notes that with punch card machines election officials used
| to be able to determine definitively if all ballots had been counted
| in the results....
`----
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/04/diebold_vote_da.html
There are many more in the archives. The takeaway is very consistent. The only
thing preventing open source from being the natural choice and the norm is
lobbying (even misconceptions).
|
|
