CA State Sen. Bowen's Hearings on Open Source Software *** Feb 8 & 16

[nicknameless]

From CA State Senator Debra Bowen's office:

BOWEN ANNOUNCES HEARING DATES TO EXAMINE THE “OPEN SOURCE VOTING” CONCEPT
AND HOW VOTING EQUIPMENT IS CERTIFIED FOR USE

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.”

The first hearing on February 8th will focus on the open source software issue. “Open source software” has been around for several decades, but it’s become more popular in recent years. Some of the more well-known names in the open source software world are Firefox (an Internet browser), Linux (an operating system), and Red Hat (which sells and supports a version of Linux for businesses). Witnesses will include experts on the benefits and shortcomings of open source software in general, businesses and government agencies that rely on open source software, experts on the challenges of using open source software in an electoral setting, and voting machine vendors. The hearing will be in Room 112 at the State Capitol and will begin at 9:00 a.m.

“We’ve worked hard to make elections more transparent over the years by, for example, making it easier for voters to track campaign contributions, but when it comes to the fundamental issue of how the accuracy of the election results are ensured, voters are left completely in the dark,” continued Bowen. “We’re in the middle of an intense discussion over whether Diebold’s voting machines should be re-certified for use here in California for the 2006 elections. I want to look further ahead at what alternatives there are to relying on proprietary software that can’t be examined and has turned out to be fatally flawed.”

The second hearing on February 16th will look at the process of how exactly voting systems are certified for use in California. Witnesses will discuss how the process works, what roles the Elections Assistance Commission, the Independent Testing Authorities (ITA), the voting machine vendors, and the state play in the process – and about what the flaws are in the current system. The hearing will be held in the Menlo Park City Council Chambers at 1:00 p.m. The following day, researchers from around the U.S. who are studying voting technology as part of ACCURATE (A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable, and Transparent Elections) will be meeting in Menlo Park, led by nationally-recognized Johns Hopkins University Professor Avi Rubin. Last year, ACCURATE received a $7.5 million grantfrom the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study how to design and build secure and reliable voting systems. The group will also investigate ways to improve the process for testing and certifying voting machines.

“The federal testing process is notoriously weak and it’s done in secret,” continued Bowen. “These supposedly ‘independent testing authorities’ are not only paid for by the voting machine industry, but they also conduct their tests behind closed doors.

"We need to do away with the secrecy and the ‘Trust us, we know what we’re doing’ approach the voting machine vendors and the Secretary of State are taking with this issue, because California voters deserve a process that’s as open and transparent as possible.”

Evan L. Goldberg
Chief of Staff
Senator Debra Bowen
(D-Redondo Beach)
[e-mail]
[phone]
[phone]

CA State Senator Debra Bowen!!! :applause: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :applause: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :applause: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :applause:

[kster]

1. Kick.n.Recommended...nt

[kster]

2. Am I missing something here, this is a good thing Right?

should I not have voted for this for some reason?

[Wilms]

3. kick