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Republicans leak voting machines source code (theguardian.com)
25 points by nickserv on Aug 29, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments


Obscurity shouldn't be the only form of security. These systems are very insecure, and the fact that they are trying to rely on obscurity is pathetic. The code should be open source and auditable. I specifically mean,Publically viewable, not open source licensed. They can keep ownership, but I think the only way moving forward with Digital election systems is open spec, and viewable code, so we the people can ensure there is no manipulation. Anyone that tries to prevent such a thing is likely trying to manipulate it, or cover for those who are.


> The code should be open source and auditable.

100%. Who in their right mind would think it is a good idea to trust a private corporation with doing the right thing in regards to democracy and voting?

Whoever has been outsourcing voting to private corporations needs to be investigated for graft. This have been going on for years.


Obscurity is NOT security. The strongest encryption algorithms are open sourced and transparent. This is known in InfoSec. It's the math that makes something secure, by proving the search space is unfeasible.


100% agree. Want to see all our open source advocates jump into this conversation.


Link to the source code?


It's hard to decide which part to highlight, as every sentence is more farcical than the last, starting with the premise that the code that counts American's votes is kept secret from them, and the unquestioning trust placed by the author in what election officials and voting machine vendors say - election security is not something that should be taken on faith.

> Dominion has filed suits contesting unfounded claims about its systems. In May, it called giving Cyber Ninjas access to its code “reckless” and said it would cause “irreparable damage” to election security.

The machines are so very secure, that mere access to the source code (something which many people had even before - do we trust all of them? Do we even know who they are?) is downright reckless? Then we shouldn't be using machines at all, as they are clearly untrustworthy even by their own admission.

This is not a fringe opinion - electronic voting was ruled unconstitutional in Germany [1], and Computerphile has strong arguments against it as well [2].

In summary, we should be outraged that a leak was needed, not that it happened.

[1] https://www.dw.com/en/german-court-rules-e-voting-unconstitu...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_0x6oaDmI




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