Interesting news: on 27 February, the New York State Board of Elections unanimously adopted a resolution that would provide for waiver of fees for certification testing of open source software. The official announcement says that the Board may elect to waive fees (that a vendor pays for examination of a voting system) if the vendor meets some specific conditions of proof that the system is open source.

It's perhaps an early step, but a significant one, towards providing vendors with a business reason for alternatives to owning the "entire stack" of closed system products for voting devices. Much to stay tuned for ...