EFF helped score a big win for election transparency in North Carolina today, convincing a North Carolina judge to dismiss Diebold's attempt to evade the state's tough electronic voting regulations.
North Carolina has enacted one of the most robust laws in the country, requiring that e-voting companies put their source code in escrow and release the names of all the programmers. But earlier this month -- on the day that voting equipment bids to the state were due -- Diebold said it could not comply. In a last-minute filing to a North Carolina superior court, Diebold was granted a temporary restraining order that would allow it to continue with the bidding process without criminal or civil liability.
Sounds like a classic case of a big corporation getting to set its own rules, right? But EFF intervened in the case, and today the judge agreed with our arguments. He ruled that Diebold must follow the law if it wanted to continue the bidding process in North Carolina. Score one for election transparency and integrity.