Court: Protecting trade secrets takes priority over election transparency

[kpete]

Court: Protecting trade secrets takes priority over election transparency
By Ryan Paul | Published: June 25, 2007 - 08:26AM CT

A Florida appeals court has upheld a lower court decision that denies requests for an independent source code audit of voting machines used by Florida's 13th district, which suffered election irregularities in a highly controversial congressional race. The appeals court has chosen to support a lower court decision which asserts that forcing voting machine maker Election Systems and Software (ES&S) to provide source code access to independent security auditors would amount to "gutting the protections afforded those who own trade secrets."

It all started when candidate Christine Jennings lost to Rep. Vern Buchanan by only 368 votes in a House race last year, the slimmest margin of any congressional race in the country. Irregularities in the election, particularly high undervote rates, caused Jennings to express doubts about the validity of the outcome. During the election, approximately 15 percent (or 18,000) of the total ballots cast in the district did not include a vote in the disputed race. By comparison, the absentee ballots in the same district and regular paper ballots used in neighboring districts only exhibit a 2 percent undervote rate for congressional races. The high undervote rates have been attributed to the ES&S iVotronic machines used in the 13th district.

Although efforts to get the state to force ES&S to submit to additional independent code audits have failed, a bipartisan congressional task force working closely with the Government Accountability Office is actively scrutinizing the circumstances surrounding election irregularities in Florida's 13th district, and may decide to subpoena ES&S. The congressional task force plans to issue a progress report late next month, but the entire investigation is expected to last until September.

Could the iVotronic systems be responsible for the voting irregularities? A growing body of evidence indicates that electronic voting machines, particularly those that use touch-screens, lead to higher undervote rates. Touch-screen voting machines made by major vendors also frequently exhibit serious technical flaws and poor reliability. In response to widespread voting machine problems, Florida governor Charlie Crist is encouraging the state legislature to pass a law that would prevent districts from buying most kinds of touch-screen voting machines.

more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fnews.ars%2Fpost%2F20070625-florida-appeals-court-says-trade-secret-protection-takes-priority-over-election-transparency.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. This Kpete post is the MOST IMPORTANT POST YOU WILL EVER READ!

We need to realize that what this Florida court is saying is that our democracy is OVER.

Fini. Kaput.

When corporate "trade secrets" trump the right of the voters to know how their votes are counted, it's all over.

This WAS the coup. It started in October 2002, with the "Help America Vote for Bush Act" (aka HAVA), in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution, and closely related to the intention of our political establishment to shove this unjust heinous war down our throats. At that point, 56% of the American people opposed the invasion of Iraq (56% would be a landslide in a presidential election)--a figure that has now grown to over 70%. It was to thwart this great, peace-minded, justice-minded American majority that "trade secret" vote counting was fast-tracked across the country, with $3.9 billion in boondoggle funding (corrupting everything in its path).

Funny, isn't it, how we elected a Democratic Congress to stop the war, and the war just somehow goes on and on and on. Funny, how this Democratic Congress ESCALATED the war with $100 billion MORE of our tax dollars larded into Dick Cheney's retirement fund.

Well, not funny, really. Tragic. Our own party leadership approved electronic voting, with machines run on "trade secret," proprietary programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, and, furthermore, with virtually no audit/recount controls--and have suppressed, and 'black-holed,' and forbidden any discussion of it, as have the war profiteering corporate news monopolies.

It didn't have to be with is way. In Venezuela, for instance, they vote electronically but it is an OPEN SOURCE CODE system--anyone may review the code by which votes are tabulated--and they handcount FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of the ballots, as a check on machine fraud. Know how much WE handcount? If you don't know, you'd better find out. Cuz that's the whole ballgame. And, not incidentally, this is why Venezuelans have a real president, and we do not.

Ah, America, my beloved country, you have been so fucked!

[nashville_brook]

3. amen.

[Land Shark]

6. I think depression and Resignation is WHAT THEY MOST NEED (the other side)

please see post #5 on why this is not "final" http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=475245&mesg_id=475264

[mod mom]

8. Wheres the coverage of this. I went to bed sick to my stomach over it.

I even had to stay away from news most of the day-spent 3 ours volunteering at the local dog shelter among mom duties- to try to get my mind off this one.

[Kurovski]

2. K&R. (nt)

[Land Shark]

4. This was an unusual appeal in the middle of a case, with a HIGH standard

and the court basically refused to hear the merits. That doesn't necessarily mean that the lower court was right, but it does mean that the lower court ruling will stand until the end of the case and any appeal thereafter, if any.

[Land Shark]

5. FL-13: No argument was made that NO TRADE SECRETS EXISTED in FL-13

because there are 10 decent ways to argue that. It was presumed that trade secrets existed in public elections, even though they are commercial in nature, by definition, and could be deeemed waived by entering the public arena, just like you lose privacy rights on becoming a political candidate to a large extent.

In other words, in FL-13 the case was not FULLY litigated, and the appeal was in a special procedural posture where appeals courts do not want to hear the merits of an appeal until there is a "final order" at the end of a case.

We should not just "accept" that trade secrets are "the law". Rather, as of the May 8, 2007 House Admin committee, the Congress is newly trying to institutionalize trade secrecy and require nondisclosure agreements. This would be an attempt to "settle" the law in a nasty way. All prior trade secrecy arose via vendor Contracts. Now, ask yourself the question: HOW CAN A MERE CONTRACT THAT YOU NEVER SIGNED, CHANGE YOUR RIGHTS AS A CITIZEN?

That's why the Holt Bill is historically bad news on trade secrecy. If passed, the absurdity of our "representative" government would require us to believe that We the People voted to keep secrets from OURSELVES.

[kster]

7. K&R...nt