E-voting firm opens up its code (VoteHere)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4677716/

A software company voluntarily released the source code for its paperless ballot verification system on Tuesday, marking a first in the increasingly controversial electronic-voting market.

Bellevue-based VoteHere said the code, along with documentation and examples included in the downloadable software package, would allow outside experts to evaluate how the company's VHTi technology works to verify election results. The VHTi system uses cryptographic methods to secure ballots and flag vote-tampering efforts.

"Now it's up to the world to take a look and dig in and give us their opinion," the company's founder, Jim Adler, told MSNBC.com.

E-voting systems have sparked a sharp debate over the past few months, due to well-publicized glitches as well as wider concerns over computer security. In January, a group of computer scientists contended that no Internet-based election system could be fully secured against fraud, leading the Defense Department to cancel an Internet voting experiment. Similar concerns have been raised over the use of e-voting machines in traditional polling places — and state election officials are taking the concerns to heart.

So how will we really know this will be the unaltered code used on election day?

By opening up its software, this firm is probably trying to make itself more attractive than Diebold, which owns the lion's share of the electronic voting machine market.