Everyone should cheer for California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and the geek squad that worked with her to find out just what security vulnerabilities existed in the 5 brands of electronic voting machines used in California.

Bowen announced that Diebold and Sequoia voting machines would not be used with the exception of people with disabilities, and that the other brands would be re-certified when certain security requirements were met.

It’s been known for some time now that these electronic voting machines are exceptionally vulnerable to hackers. That the companies who make these machines would go on record to say that “Electronic voting systems have never been successfully tampered with in an actual election” is naive at best, and seems to imply that if they have never been tampered with then they could never possibly be tampered with in the future. I’m glad that the California Secretary of State is wiser than that.

As a software engineer and computer scientist, I feel that I am in a special position to know just how easy it is to leave loopholes or backdoors in a product. There is very little stopping me, except for my own sense of honesty and perhaps a small possibility that I could potentially be caught for such mischief. But when it comes to something as sensitive as the basis of our freedom and liberty, I expect a much higher level of scrutiny on the companies and individuals who could undermine it.

The saying, “He who votes decides nothing; he who counts the votes decides everything” is attributed to Joseph Stalin. I hope this new standard of scrutiny is extended beyond the state of California.