Illinois opens voting system testing information

(via Alan of the OVC)

Illinois just passed House Bill 1968 which states (in part):

All test plans, test results, documentation, and other records used to plan, execute, and record the results of the testing and verification [of voting systems], including all material prepared or used by independent testing authorities or other third parties, shall be made part of the public record and shall be freely available via the Internet and paper copy to anyone. "Audit trail" or "audit capacity"

[More:]

This appears to be the first statute that would require material used to test and qualify/certify voting systems would have to be made public. I see a few things that might happen as a result of this:

1. There will be litigation involving voting system vendors and possibly ITAs to define what is in the scope of this provision.

2. Voting system vendors that don't look favorably upon transparency will either find ways around this (likely through litigation) or will choose not to do business in Illinois (which is probably not a big deal for large vendors).

3. ITAs will seek to keep their testing procedures and plans secret because they see it as a competitive advantage... even though the "market" for ITAs is only a market of two and likely closer to 1.5 (as only one of the ITAs can test both hardware and software).