E-voting source code NOT to be opened in Wisconsin

UPDATE [2006-01-05T12:56:32]: Unfortunately, all the hub-ub was about a draft of the bill as introduced, the version as passed into law has none of the disclosure of code language and instead favors escrow and evaluation (sort of like what N.C. requires but not nearly as comprehensive).

The post below is now obsolete.

The Governor of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle, has just signed into law ("Voting machine source code must be made open") a verified voting bill (AB-627) that also would mandate open source code. This appears to be the first serious attempt by a state to mandate that voting system code be accessible by the public. The pertinent language:

5.84 (3) If a municipality uses an electronic voting system for voting at any election, the municipal clerk shall provide to any person, upon request, at the expense of the municipality, the coding for the software that the municipality uses to operate the system and to tally the votes cast.

and:

5.91 (19) The coding for the software that is used to operate the system on election day and to tally the votes cast is publicly accessible and may be used to independently verify the accuracy and reliability of the operating and tallying procedures to be employed at any election.

The effective date of this law is the day after it is published (enrolled) as law. That means within a week or so, I would imagine.

Wisconsin is going into uncharted territory here... as we've seen lately in North Carolina ("After EFF Litigation, Diebold Pulls Out of North Carolina"), vendors are highly reluctant to hand over source code even to state government entities that would arguably do a good job of protecting the code while it's being subject to evaluation. If other states don't do this quickly, Wisconsin will find itself with zero vendors (other than, possibly, the OVC) willing to do business in their state.