New Wisconsin Law Requires Open Source, Verifiable Voting

[iconoclastNYC]

***
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle today signed legislation that "will require the software of touch-screen voting machines used in elections to be open-source. Municipalities that use electronic voting machines are responsible for providing to the public, on request, the code used." Madison's Capital Times reports "the bill requires that if a municipality uses an electronic voting system that consists of a voting machine, the machine must generate a complete paper ballot showing all votes cast by each elector that is visually verifiable by the elector before he or she leaves the machine.""

ny voting machines to be used in the state already had to pass State Elections Board tests. Electronic voting machines, in particular, already were required to maintain their results tallies even if the power goes out, and to produce paper ballots that could be used in case of a recount. The new law also requires the paper ballots to be presented to voters for verification before being stored.

But perhaps more influential in the long term is the requirement that municipalities provide source code, and the more general condition that "the coding for the software that is used to operate the system on election day and to tally the votes cast is publicly accessible and may be used to independently verify the accuracy and reliability of the operating and tallying procedures to be employed at any election."

The bill passed the Assembly 91-4 and the Senate 29-2.
***

http://wistechnology.com/article.php?id=2585

slashdot discussion at : http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/06/01/04/2124236.shtml?tid=103&tid=137

[Botany]

1. Wow!

:bounce:

[Massacure]

2. Perfect.

[Wilms]

3. Recommend. Thanks. n/t

[The Roux Comes First]

4. Huzzah!! Sounds like just what everyone needs (eom)

[Mountainman]

5. Well maybe the repukes will copy this bill and make it a federal law to!

I doubt it though.

I heard yesterday on KPFK that no electronic voting machine error has been found to give votes to a Democrat.

[Skink]

7. Gotta love those states rights.

That's so republican of them:spray:

[MissWaverly]

6. Gave it a kick to the Greatest Page

[bleever]

8. On Wisconsion!

:applause:

[ClassWarrior]

33. Ya'd think a smart aleck kid would be smart enough to spell it right.

Right?

B-)

NGU.

[bleever]

35. D'Oh!!

:blush:


Bucky Badger would dig my eyes out if he saw that.

[iconoclastNYC]

9. Check out the slashdot discussion:

"What I've always thought would be a good idea would be a computer to help generate the ballot, and then a separate computer to count those ballots.

This offers the advantages of multi-language ballots with brail, audio prompts, etc. And the resulting ballot is standardized so it can be read by both machine and human - and no "hanging chads".

The ballots can then be easily counted by another machine - and human validated as necessary.

The ballot-generating computer never needs to "count" - but it could do so as a spot check against the counting computer."
---------------

It hardly matters if it is open source. Who will compile it before it is uploaded to the machine ? Who will check that the correct software is loaded ? Who will check the guy doing the checking ?

Automated vote counting of any kind - electronic or mechanical - makes fraud considerably easier, puts a mystery shroud around the counting process and as such is incompatible with democracy. In the UK we count all the votes in our elections within 12 hours including the odd recount. Why are Americans obsessed with diluting their democracy by using machines to do it ?

------------------


I find it somewhat amusing that the country that brags to the world that they are such a great democracy, are having such a hard time to perform something as basic and simple as a vote without the citizens suspecting foul play and cheating all the time...

Isnt it some kind of generel error with a system when the major issue is not what to vote on, but if the voting process wasn't rigged?

Of course its good that the citicens can keep control on the elections, but why not just handle it like most of the rest of the "democratic" world, vote with paper notes, and have a public count for each election-locale where representatives from all parties who wants, can monitor the counting process.

That way there cant be any suspicions of rigged results - everything is public, and nobody can cheat.

Somehow I realy dont see the point in making elections electronic, since all machine-stored results is based on a chain of trust, since that trust doesnt exist, why not stick to paper?

-------------------
an someone explain why we can standardize street signs and the amount of sugar allowed in school lunches but we cannot get a standardized election system?

After the 2000 election debacle, we had money thrown at the states to "fix the problem." So we ended up with 35 different solutions.

A simple federal mandate - the voter must be verifiable, their vote must be able to be able to be authenticated after they leave the booth, in the event of a recount and the system can be fully audited. Instead, we have systems with no paper trails, questionable vendor operations, and seemingly contradictory election results.

We can make millions of secure stock sales, bank transfers and on-line purchases daily, and we cannot get a vote counted and auditable? The people who produced these machines should be fired for stupidity and forced to return our money.

-------------------
Wisconsin was also the state that delegated district boundary duties to a third party, to try and prevent Gerrymandering. I live in Minnesota, and I can say with some certainty that there must be somethhing up here that makes us slightly saner than the rest of the country. And I'm glad.

-------------------

[sybylla]

18. I wish, as your post states, that WI had delegated redistricting to

third parties. That was Iowa. Hopefully, third party redistricting will be next on the legislature's agenda.

[tridim]

10. That's all it takes to cause Diebold et al to run away screaming

It's not like it's unreasonable either. Any state that doesn't do the same doesn't believe in Democracy.

[iconoclastNYC]

12. Excpect Diebold to spin off it's election equipment division soon.

All those lawsuits are having the intended effect. Once some people get tossed out of thier jobs we should have some nice whistleblowers come forward. Fingers crossed.

[OnionPatch]

11. Yayyy!

First I read about CT rejecting touch-screens and now Wisconsin gets some good election law!! Geez, I might be forced out of my surly mood today after all.

[dxdem]

13. R-amen to that. n/t

[Nictuku]

14. Yess!!! Goodbye Sensenbrenner!

God but I dislike that man with intensity. With fair and open elections, my hope is that the good people of his state will vote his ass out of congress.

(he is the one who slipped in the 'Real ID' act into 'must pass' legislation, he is the one who is trying to split up the 9th Circuit (he is on the Judiciary Committee), he is the one who gaveled the hearing being held on the Patriot Act before all of the democratic speakers were finished, and he pulled their mikes, and he is the one who stayed behind recently and alone... without any other congresspeople present, changed the 6month extension of the patriot act (so there could be more debate), to only 6 weeks, giving congress no time to debate, they will have to vote on it once they reconvene.

And.. this is the scariest of all, he is the one who wanted to introduce a bill to congress that would make it so that if you were aware of anyone who smoked pot in the same house where children lived, that you would go to jail if you didn't report on them.

I hate that guy, and I hope that this sign of the people of Wisconsin waking up and opening their eyes is also a sign of how they will be voting in 2006.

[ginnyinWI]

27. I hope so too, but he's really entrenched in the 5th Dist.

And our district is so Republican. What I'd really like to see is some redistricting done by an impartial body. Bryan Kennedy is running against him, though, and got 30% last time. Here's hoping this next run will be much better and we can throw that old geezer out!

www.bryankennedyforcongress.com

[jazzjunkysue]

15. OK, I want this.

You go, Wisconsin.

[sybylla]

16. New (WI) law ensures voting paper trail

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/index.php?ntid=67579&ntpid=0

New law ensures voting paper trail
Machines must generate ballot
By Anita Weier
January 4, 2006

Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law today a bill that will require that touch screen voting machines produce a verifiable paper ballot.

The bill requires that if a municipality uses an electronic voting system that consists of a voting machine, the machine must generate a complete paper ballot showing all votes cast by each elector that is visually verifiable by the elector before he or she leaves the machine.

"This is important for democracy. Voters have to be able to trust that their votes are counted," Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said after the bill signing.

The bill, AB 627, also will ensure that reliable recounts can be done, added McCabe, whose organization lobbied for its enactment.

<snip>

[Archae]

17. We get it right in WI

Ok Ohio, Georgia, Florida, etc, your turn!

[freedomfries]

19. kick & rec

great news! Wisconsin showing the way to the nation! Thanks for posting!

[FormerDittoHead]

20. This law should be a blueprint for all states. 'nuff said (n/t)

[Greybnk48]

21. Yea Doyle!!!

I hope our state starts a nation-wide demand for similar requirements in all states.

[rodeodance]

22. "the machine must generate a complete paper ballot "

[rodeodance]

23. yabba dappa doooooooo--it is my blue state

[Ellipsis]

24. Go team Wisconsin.

[sweetm2475]

25. Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!

Another one for our side!!!!!!!!!!!!:toast: :bounce: :woohoo: :applause:

[msongs]

26. Now all that's needed = paper ballot as ballot of RECORD

as in the machine prints a copy for the voter AND a copy for the precinct, such copy being the one kept on file
in case a recount is necessary for any reason.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/clark2008.htm

[Auntie Bush]

28. Thank God...It's about time! That news is good for my health...and

reduces my stress level. It should be the law of the land and should have been enacted after the 2000 election. What took so long?

[Vidar]

29. The spirit of LaFollette lives on. Way to go, Wisconsin.

[nicknameless]

30. I hope this goes into effect immediately, & applies to 11/06 election.

[The Onyx Key]

31. Very sensible.

I hope this is a trend.

[texpatriot2004]

32. Woo Hoo

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[jsamuel]

34. WOOT

[Rainscents]

36. Great news!

:bounce:

[autorank]

37. Beautiful...RECOMMENDED..and reference slashdod.com, manifique

[Nordmadr]

38. See Bradblog. Code language removed from bill. Bad news

I'm afraid.

http://www.bradblog.com/

The voting activist and election reform advocacy community was excited
yesterday upon release of news about the signing of a new bill in Wisconsin,
AB267, that originally included wording that would allow munipalities to
"provide to any person, upon request, at the expense of the municipality,
the coding for the software that the municipality uses to operate the system
and to tally the votes cast". Indeed, The
BRAD BLOG received many email reports last night about the "good news"
concerning this bill.


The bill, as understood and reported by many, would have been the first time
that voting activists would have been afforded the opportunity to actually
"look under the hood" of voting machines by examining the source code used
in the software in order to see what was really being done on the
equipment supplied by Voting Machine Companies. So far, those companies have
managed keep such source code secret and proprietary and away from the
'prying eyes' of the pesky public who has been forced -- by the corporate
privatization of America's public elections -- to rely on such secret
software to accurately record and count their votes.


The apparent "good news," however, was incorrect, as The BRAD BLOG has learned. The language
from the original bill was changed during the amendment process to strip it
of the provisions that would have allowed the public inspection of the
secret code!


The good news still left to report is that the bill, signed yesterday by WI
Gov. Jim Doyle, will at least require a voter verified paper "record" for
every vote cast. In theory, the measure would allow for a manual count or
recount of votes in cases where the state determines such a count would be
necessary.



Olafr

[Dinger]

39. Proud and Happy To Be A Wisconsinite : )

This should have been headline news, but I saw it in my local paper on page 3.
Another local paper had it on page 5, but fuck 'em, cuz it's a law. Go Doyle!!!

[greiner3]

40. Way to go Wisconsin;

I wonder if Ohio's legislature will pass the same type of bill? NOT!

[iconoclastNYC]

41. One word re: Ohio leg - GERRYMANDERED