Wired has an interesting article on Australia's recently completed electronic voting system. The system was designed to be open to anyone who wishes to see the internals, and the code has been published on the Internet. What a refreshing change from the news about the American e-voting manufacturers Diebold, who operate a completely closed system, who's chief executive is a major fundraiser for the Republican party, who have been accused of purposely leaving back doors in their system, and who are now being sued by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for trying to silence debate on the subject.
Could you ask for a more perfect example of the power of the open source philosophy? And a more blatant example of why the US should think twice about pointing at themselves as the world's embassadors of democracy.