How is it, given the concerns over election system security, that the US doesn’t have open source-based voting systems, based on off-the-shelf components, running published and verified software (or even a mechanical tabulating engine: it’s harder to hack gears than flip bits in registers), and owned by the American people?
Given the wide use of public key encryption in online retail, banking, why are systems for the recording and tabulation of votes owned by private companies, controlled by them with no oversight by or accountability to the people?
I found this but it’s not clear it’s advanced to more than proof of concept or call to action.
Some states have moved to voting by mail (which poses a different set of questions if the USPS is successfully dismantled) but for those that favor the community aspect of public democracy, standardized ballots and publicly-owned voting technology is overdue.
I wonder if Richard Stallman, Bruce Schneier or Ed Felten haven’t proposed this. I haven’t found anything on it.
Maybe this is a corollary to the The best lack all conviction, while the worst / are full of passionate intensity: idealists are theorizing while thieves are getting away with it.