I strongly encourage those who are opposed to Holt’s election reform bill, to read this important article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
As the opening states:
HR 811 is not perfect. Few bills are. And honest debate about a matter as important as election integrity is always helpful to the process. However, much of the ostensibly pro-transparency criticism of HR 811 has sadly taken a detour away from being useful and descended into hyperbole, fear-mongering, and uninformed posturing. Returning to the substance of the bill and its actual consequences is long overdue.
See below for a couple of key rebuttal points to some of the worst of the misrepresentations:
Because these two points are widely cited as reasons to reject Holt’s bill, I wanted to copy and print them in full. But please see the whole piece. It’s not long, and it’s very accurate, and from a group with a long history of protecting our rights.
* “HR 811 prohibits the disclosure of voting system software.” False. HR 811 would for the first time federally mandate the disclosure of election-specific source code. The disclosure provision that emerged from committee is certainly not as broad as it could be. Public disclosure is not required, as the original language of HR 811 demanded. Yet as discussed above, HR 811 would explicitly protect the right of access for certain reviewers who currently have no such such guaranteed right and who have been routinely denied access to any software in some of the many battles that EFF has fought in the courts and elsewhere since 2003. The software industry fought long and hard behind the scenes to scuttle any disclosure requirement. That the current disclosure language emerged from committee at all is a testament to the many individuals, organizations, and lawmakers dedicated to election integrity who stood up in support of the bill instead of trying to tear it down. Make no mistake: this disclosure requirement is simply one of many initial steps in a long struggle towards full transparency of elections. But it is a critically important step, nonetheless. And once again, states may mandate any kind of additional disclosure, including an open source requirement, that they wish.
* “HR 811 makes voting system source code a trade secret.” False, and demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of trade secrecy law. HR 811 does not, in any way, “create” trade secrets or transform voting system source code into a trade secret. Information either meets trade secret criteria — created by each individual state, and not the federal government — or it doesn’t. As EFF and others have repeatedly experienced, the lack of guaranteed access to this code due to trade secrecy claims has been a major impediment to litigation over voting system failures, like the ongoing litigation brought by voters in Sarasota County, Florida, for which EFF serves as co-counsel. Far from “creating” trade secrets, HR 811 actually limits the protections offered by state trade secrecy laws to voting system source code. For example, the bill identifies “trade secrets” as one of the categories of information, protected in some circumstances by a mandatory non-disclosure agreement, that must be disclosed to qualified individuals who would have the newly-created right to review the software. Absent HR 811, litigants (such as those involved in the ongoing Sarasota County litigation) and computer science experts interesting in testing system integrity would have no guarantee of obtaining access to the source code at all. Individuals who do not enter into the non-disclosure agreements discussed in HR 811 would not be affected, and efforts to obtain access to code by other means would proceed as they always have. Critics may desire greater access to this code, as would EFF, but assertions that the bill would somehow “make the source code a government-recognized trade secret” are disingenuous. And here too, states can decide to step in and limit or even rescind the protections offered by their own trade secrecy laws.
The article ends with a ringing endorsement from EFF for HR 811:
EFF strongly supports the passage of HR 811 and hopes that you will as well. Don’t just take my word for it: read the bill for yourself and then make your own decision. If you don’t think that HR 811 goes far enough, then push for passage of complementary legislation, either in Congress or with your own state legislatures. EFF will continue to support sensible legislative proposals that can build on the foundation of HR 811. But whatever you do, don’t fall for the false choice offered in the breathless rhetoric of the “all or nothing” contingent. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. And HR 811 is good.
Please read the full article with additional embedded links here.
