> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 11:59:45 +1000
> From: jer...@visser.name
> To: link@mailman.anu.edu.au
While you're here Jeremy ... thanks for supporting Tassie
programmer-turned-lawyer Michael Cordover in his FOI request for the source
code of AEC software, developed in-house, for conducting Senate counts.
At http://easycount.mjec.net Mr Cordover writes, "I'm a lawyer and nerd from
Hobart, Tasmania. The AEC is responsible for counting Senate votes at each
election. Given the complexity of the count, this is done using a computer, in
accordance with the Electoral Act. This software was developed in-house at the
AEC. Aware of that, and given the broad definition of document in the Freedom
of Information Act, I put in a FOI request for the source code of the software
used to conduct Senate counts. (End quote)
Although the AEC refused, the Senate has quite correctly agreed, and forced the
code release.
Article By Mahesh Sharma (SMH) July 10, 2014 - 8:23PM ...
The Senate has forced the Australian Electoral Commission to disclose the
source code of the software that counts Senate preference votes after the
organisation refused to release it in response to a freedom-of-information
request.
The upper house on Thursday passed a motion by Greens senator Lee Rhiannon
demanding that the Special Minister of State table the source code for the
EasyCount application.
After the commission declined Tasmanian programmer-turned-lawyer Michael
Cordover's FOI application he sent two further emails including another FOI
request. It prompted the commission's chief legal officer, Paul Pirani, to
accuse Mr Cordover of being a vexatious applicant who had colluded with another
activist to harass the organisation.
Mr Cordover, who filed the FOI soon after last year's election, welcomed the
motion but was sceptical of whether the commission would disclose the source
code.
"The government has a tradition of not complying with orders of production of
documents and I can see them waiving it on a range of grounds," Mr Cordover
said. "If they do comply it renders my campaign moot, and I consider that an
absolute success."
Mr Cordover said he was prompted to file the FOI after the 2013 West Australian
Senate election because of a controversy a decade ago in America, where it was
found that Diebold, the company that manufactures electronic voting machines,
had strong ties to the Republican Party. People demanded the company release
the machines' source code, in order to confirm that there was no bugs – or bias
– that skewed votes.
Senator Rhiannon said after the bungled counting of last year's election, which
forced a re-run of the West Australian poll and led to the resignation of
commission head Ed Killesteyn, the refusal to disclose the source code had
further damaged the organisation's reputation.
“There is no justification for the AEC refusing to release information on how
the Senate vote is counted. It is widely known that it is very complex, so
surely the methodology used should be publicly available," Senator Rhiannon
said. “The AEC hardline position in trying to discredit Mr Cordover as a
vexatious litigant is an abuse of the law under which the AEC operates and
raises the very relevant question, what do they have to hide?"
The commission had not responded to a request for comment at the time of
publication.
Mr Cordover has raised more than $6000 for an appeal against the commission's
decision to reject his FOI application. He has pledged to pursue the matter
until the source code is released, but committed to donate any unused funds to
the Open Australia Foundation.
He said he did not suspect the commission had committed any wrongdoing,
intentionally. But he said all software contained bugs and the only way to fix
them was by inviting the public to scrutinise the source code. He said the
risks were especially big given the complex methodology used to allocate Senate
preference votes. Bugs had been found in an open-source system used in the ACT
elections, he said, though this had not affected any results.
"The impact of those bugs could be quite varied. It could tell us that either
the count was accurate and being done in the right way, or it wasn't," Mr
Cordover said.
"I think it's important for democracy to see how votes are being counted.
Secrecy is the antithesis of true democracy."
http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/vexatious-digital-activist-forces-australian-electoral-commission-to-release-secret-computer-code-20140710-zt27i.html
Cheers,
Stephen
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