[Reader-list] We need source-code whetting for India’s e-voting machines

[Sandeep]

http://digitalsarkaar.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/we-need-source-code-whetting-for-indias-e-voting-machines/

Rediff is breaking the story, about possible massive fraud in India’s
e-voting machines. Apparently, the Chief Election Commissioner was
stunned by a report by Omesh Saigal about the unreliability of the
software running on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)

As  previously pointed out, we need a reliable and open voting
infrastructure and system in place to check possible voter fraud and
election rigging (like Iran possibly). The U.S. elections have been
marred by similar problems (popularised in the movie Recount ).

It is easy for contractors to get away with substandard software – not
because I inherently allege our politicians are hand-in-glove, but
because of a simple fact: a bureaucrat cannot understand source code.
However there are hundreds of millions of citizens of this country,
whose interests are not served by malicious voting systems and who are
well qualified to understand these systems.

The entire voting apparatus source code should be made public –
bureaucrats need to understand that every software will have bugs :
that is the nature of programming. In order to save reputation about
some bug that might be found in such systems, it is definitely not in
our best interest to have such procedures shelved behind red tape.