Voting Machine Manufacturer Agrees To Hand Over Information

So what exactly caused all those phantom votes in last September's D.C. primaries? Well, thanks to Sequoia Voting Systems, city officials will soon be able to fully investigate that very question. The Post reports this morning that the manufacturer of the District's voting machines -- which, for some reason, created thousands of of extra write-in votes out of thin air last fall in City Council and Shadow Senator races -- has agreed to give the Council sensitive information about how the machines tabulate votes including source code, in order to avoid a lawsuit. It's a relatively big concession for the manufacturer and potentially sets a precedent for similar voting mishaps around the country; in addition to the District, seventeen states also use Sequoia machines. The Council says that its findings will be made public, even though Sequoia has had a long history of fighting such inquiries into its "trade secrets" -- here's hoping.