Just to keep the democratic process from going to total shit

[shZ]

I think paying attention... and hopefully contributing to making the Diebold source code open source or, at the very least, accessible for review is a worthwhile strategy and option to consider for damage control:

The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics The SEI works with leading-edge software developers and acquirers to apply and validate the new and improved practices. SEI staff members help the DoD solve specific software engineering and acquisition problems by applying these practices. The SEI's core purpose is to help others make measured improvements in their software engineering capabilities and to develop the right software, delivered defect free, on time and on cost, every time.

• To be successful, integrated teams of developers, acquirers, and software users must have the necessary software engineering skills and knowledge to ensure that the right software is delivered to end users.
• 'Right software' implies software that satisfies requirements for functionality, performance, and cost throughout its lifetime
• 'Defect-free' software is achieved either through exhaustive and endless rework or by developing the code right the first time. The SEI's body of work in technical and management practices is focused on developing it right the first time,,which results not only in higher quality, but also in predictable and improved schedule and cost"

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/8/4141/26995
...which implies making the fucking source code available! Anyone with enough capital should help lobbying for these guys:

EFF Convinces North Carolina Judge To Throw Out Diebold E-Voting Case
Monday, November 28th, 2005 E-Voting Company Forced to Comply with Election Transparency Laws Raleigh, North Carolina - Responding to arguments made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a North Carolina judge today told Diebold Election Systems that the e-voting company must comply with tough North Carolina election law and dismissed the company's case seeking broad exemptions from the law. EFF intervened in the case earlier this month, after Diebold obtained a broad temporary restraining order that allowed it to evade key transparency requirements without criminal or civil liability. The law requires escrow of the source code for all voting systems to be certified in the state and identification of programmers. In today's hearing, the judge told Diebold if it wanted to continue in the bidding process for certified election systems in the state, it must follow the law and if it failed to do so, it would face liability. "The North Carolina legislature showed great leadership and courage in passing one of the most robust voting machine transparency laws in the country," said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "The court decision reiterates what EFF had been arguing on behalf of our client all along: Diebold is not entitled to special rules." EFF intervened in the case on behalf of North Carolina voter and election integrity advocate Joyce McCloy, with assistance from Don Beskind and the North Carolina law firm of Twiggs, Beskind, Strickland & Rabenau, P.A. EFF argued that Diebold had failed to show why it was unable to meet election law provisions requiring source code escrow and identification of programmers, and asked the court to force Diebold and every other North Carolina equipment vendor to comply. Diebold could appeal the ruling, go forward with its bid, or withdraw from the process. However, Diebold told the court that it would likely withdraw the bid if the company did not have liability protection. North Carolina experienced one of the most serious malfunctions of e-voting systems in the 2004 presidential election when over 4,500 ballots were lost in a voting system provided by Diebold competitor UniLect Corp. The new transparency and integrity provisions of the North Carolina election law were passed in response to this and other documented malfunctions that have occurred across the country. The North Carolina Board of Elections is scheduled to announce winning voting equipment vendors on December 1, 2005. For the brief filed in the case: http://www.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/20 ... Motion.pdf Contacts: Matt Zimmerman Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation mattz@eff.org[/email:1lf3dd9p] Cindy Cohn Legal Director Electronic Frontier Foundation [email=cindy@eff.org:1lf3dd9p]cindy@eff.org[/email:1lf3dd9p]

Source: http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2005/11/28

EDIT: Formatting