For anyone who's been watching how American elections seem to have become increasingly commodified, with huge contracts going to just a few corporations who seem unaccountable to even election officials, it's inspiring to see this:

California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson is forming a panel to investigate using open source software in elections. He has invited OVC [Open Voting Consortium] president Alan Dechert to be on the panel, and has asked for Dechert's input on who should be on the panel.

It's inspiring to see the Cluetrain in business start to bleed over into political institutions (beyond the "netroots"). The democratization (small "d") of electoral politics can only be a good thing for a democracy.

Among the many illustrious individuals indicating they want to participate in the panel (and whose names Dechert submitted) are Bruce Perens and Brian Behlendorf. Behlendorf started Apache -- open source free software on which 70 percent of the web sites on the Internet are running.

This all started when OVC supporter Richard Dawson drafted a resolution and gave it to his representative in the State Assembly (Jackie Goldberg). Goldberg introduced Assembly Concurrent Resolution 242 (ACR 242). OVC supporters helped to get the resolution passed in the State Legislature over some industry opposition. Alan Dechert testified in favor of it before the Senate Elections Committee on AUG 11, 2004.

As a State Senator at the time, McPherson voted for it -- one of few Republicans that did so.

The report could form the philosophical basis for our Open Voting bill and could also provide the justification for getting HAVA funding for voting system Research and Development. OVC is asking that the CA State Government hire the University of California to do this work. McPherson has also made public statements indicating that he is in favor of this. A recent article in the Oakland Tribune says, "McPherson proposes pooling federal voting-reform money for several states and devoting it to research on the best way to verify electronic voting." [Emphasis in original.]

Once upon a time, votes were hand-tallied, with all major political parties supervising the count. Now the temptations of "easy" counting have taken this accountability away, with hidden counting happening inside of CPUs running patented -- and therefore secret -- program algorithms. An open source approach could change this with code, reliability, accuracy and security established and agreed to by all sides -- something that should appeal to all voters, no matter what their political convictions.

California has led American political trends in the past. We'll see what happens here.