OK. I've had a little time to think. Because open source is open to scrutiny, it is less susceptible to bugs.
Did I tell you I am a voting machine tech? We print the zero tapes in the morning and tape them by the precinct door. Then at the end of the day we run the totals tapes and paste them next to the zero tapes. Any citizen can verify the county total results by going from precinct to precinct and counting up the totals tapes. My county tabulator doesn't worry me. . I would like the VST to calibrate each machine, run a logic and accuracy test on a random machine before running the zero tapes, and replace problem machines. There shouldn't be problem machines. Period. If there is a paper trail, if random audits are performed by independent technicians, I think a voter could cast his/her vote with confidence and a recount could be conducted with some legitimacy.
Regards
I was having a blond moment. I can't imagine allowing a corporation to own the platform, especially given the choice. When you buy your voting equipment it should be yours to keep. Unlike Diebold who fights every request to inspect the source code, open source means that the operating system isn't owned by anyone. It's free. Anyone can look at it without getting the permission of some corporation.
In any event, I just wanted to make some sense about what I intuitively thought.
