Transparency and Access to Source Code in E-Voting

USENIX/ACCURATE Electronic Voting Technology Workshop

14 Pages Posted: 19 Jun 2006 Last revised: 30 Aug 2014

Date Written: 2006

Abstract

We examine the potential role of source code disclosure and open source code requirements in promoting technical improvements and increasing transparency of voting systems. We describe the enclosure of transparency of voting technology that has occurred over the course of United States' electoral history, the implications that source code disclosure has for transparency, the negative effects that enclosing transparency has had at different levels and the regulatory and legislative efforts to increase access to source code. We then look at the benefits and risks of open and disclosed source code regimes for voting systems, efforts to provide open source voting systems, existing open source business models that might translate to the voting systems context, regulatory and market barriers to disclosed or open source code in voting systems and alternatives that might exist outside of public disclosure of source code. We conclude that disclosure of full system source code to qualified individuals will promote technical improvements in voting systems while limiting some of the potential risks associated with full public disclosure.

Keywords: open source, electronic voting, trade secrecy, intellectual property, democracy, transparency

Suggested Citation

Hall, Joseph Lorenzo, Transparency and Access to Source Code in E-Voting (2006). USENIX/ACCURATE Electronic Voting Technology Workshop, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=909582 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.909582

Joseph Lorenzo Hall (Contact Author)

New York University - MCC ( email )

239 Greene St., 7th Floor
New York, NY 10003-1836
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://josephhall.org/

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