By going to an open-source system, he said, the application's code could be carefully and publicly analyzed for flaws and security issues, then could be fixed and made trustworthy for use. At least, that's the position of open source advocates who think they can build a better system than those created by proprietary vendors across the nation.
"What we're trying to advance is full public scrutiny, with many eyes on the code," Dechert said.
The open source system aims to solve several concerns about traditional vendor-supplied e-voting systems in use across the nation, he said, including:
- By being open source, the code can be checked at any time for flaws or problems by any qualified programmer or developer, making it more transparent and trustworthy
- By using off-the-shelf PC hardware and printers and other peripherals, it's much cheaper than custom, purpose-built e-voting consoles and equipment
- It's usable by handicapped voters and by voters who speak languages other than English
- It contains a voter-verifiable and fully auditable paper record that is preserved and recountable
"It could be used now," Dechert said. Some local voting jurisdictions are in talks with the group now about looking further at the system, including local officials in at least one Maryland county, he said.
For use in national elections, the system would have to be heavily analyzed and eventually certified as an election system, he said. That process is part of the group's future goals, he said.
Here in San Francisco, for the system in display on the show floor, mock "voters" came into the individual voting cubicles and stood in front of a computer screen that lay flat in front of them on a table. The voters then used a traditional computer mouse to make their selections on the one-screen ballot and then advanced the ballot selections with on-screen arrows. Voters could also choose to go back to check or change their selections.
After completing the ballots, voters were asked to confirm their candidate or referendum question selections several times, then were able to print their ballots out completely on a printer that sat before them in the voting cubicle. The voter then put the printed paper ballot in a manila folder and walks it over to a nearby election official, who electronically tallies and scans it in front of the voter.
More than 300 people voted using the system yesterday to give it a try. Project organizers set up a ballot with the three major party candidates in this year's presidential election, as well as several referendum questions about e-voting and other topical public issues.
Dick Turnquist, an IT manager for the Association of California Water Agencies, test-voted on the proposed system and said he liked what he experienced. "It certainly was easy enough to use," Turnquist said. "I probably would prefer it" to existing e-voting systems.
Greg Simonoff, an engineer for the California Department of Transportation, said he liked using the system but would prefer a touch-screen voting mechanism rather than a mouse-based system.
Dechert said the mouse-based system is being used in the demonstration phase of the project to cut costs but would be replaced with a touch-screen system in production.