Voting and Free Software

[Florian Snow]

Hi Richard,


Richard Stallman <rms at gnu.org> writes:
> I am against using computers to enter votes.
> See stallman.org/evoting.html.

I agree completely.  Voting computers violate basic principles of
elections by making vote counting completely intransparent.  That is
something that John Oliver (as much as I like him) fails to mention
altogether.  I am glad voting machines have been deemed unconstitutional
in Germany.  I hope other countries will follow suit.  It also makes
financial sense because counting paper votes is way cheaper than
machines that need to be replaced every couple of years.


> We used to have a GNU package, GNU FREE, for holding elections.
> We decided, the developer and I, to withdraw it because software
> should not be used for that purpose.

I think such a tool could be useful for within organizations or in case
where the stakes are lower than in a political election.  There may be
cases where the convenience of voting online may be more important than
complete transparency.

Happy hacking!
Florian