Bowen (CA) touts open source software in vote counting.

[Stevepol]

Debra Bowen is turning into a real power in CA in her espousal of fair and transparent vote counting. She needs and deserves all the support we can give her. This is a great article courtesy of VotersUnite.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/

BOWEN ANNOUNCES DATES ON 'OPEN SOURCE VOTING' CONCEPT AND HOW VOTING EQUIPMENT IS CERTIFIED


California Political Desk

The California Political Desk provides information, news releases, and announcements obtained from communication and public relations offices throughout the state.

view author's other articles

Join this author's mailing list
Your Name:

E-mail Address:

By California Political Desk
January 28, 2006

SACRAMENTO – Questions about whether California should move toward using electronic voting systems that rely on “open source software” and how exactly voting systems are tested and certified for use will be the subject of two hearings scheduled today by Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach), the chairwoman of the Senate Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee.


“If we want people to have confidence that their votes are being counted accurately, the process we use to certify machines for use in this state and the systems themselves need to be open, accessible, and completely transparent,” said Bowen, a long-time open government advocate and the author of the 1993 measure that put all of the Legislature’s bills, analyses, and voting records on the Internet. “Nationwide, only 48% of the people are confident their votes are actually being counted correctly or being counted at all and you don’t build confidence in our electoral system by leaving people in the dark. To restore people’s faith in the system and ensure ballots are tallied accurately, we need to turn on the lights and let people see the nuts and bolts of how the technology works and how it’s tested for accuracy.”

Here's the link:

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=5227

[yourout]

1. Open source is an improvement but.........

I would rather have no software at all.

[Wilms]

2. kick