Voting machines are costly and black-boxed. Can we open source them?
While the vendors pitched their latest voting machines in Concord, New Hampshire, this past August, the election officials in the room gasped. They whispered, “No way.” They nodded their heads and filled out the scorecards in their laps. Interrupting if they had to, they asked every kind of question: How much does the new scanner weigh? Are any of its parts made in China? Does it use the JSON data format?The answers weren’t trivial. Based in part on these presentations, many would be making a once-in-a-decade…