It's obvious from the latest U.S. election that our voting system could use some improvement in terms of both enabling and supporting voters and efficiently tallying and verifying a trusted result. Open source offers the technology, as well as the culture and community, to address these challenges, and it may be among the best solutions.

Unfortunately, after covering elections and open source software for a long time, I've seen how other challenges and hurdles can stand in the way of progress. Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles to more open, transparent and verifiable elections is public perception and attention.

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