September 13, 2007

Co-Executive Director Peter Kosinski

Co-Executive Director Stanley Zalen
Commissioner Neil Kelleher, Co-Chair
Commissioner Douglas Kellner, Co-Chair
Commissioner Evelyn Aquila

Commissioner Helena Moses Donohue

New York State Board of Elections
40 Steuben Street
Albany, New York 12207

re Certification testing fee -- waiver for 100% open-source, free software

Dear Commissioners, Co-Chairs, and Co-Executive Directors of the New York State Board of Elections:

The certification testing fee for voting systems offered to our state for free, with 100% open source software that runs on Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) hardware, should be waived. This would serve our state interest and the public.

Open source, publicly-available software often has very high quality. Our state needs the best! It is one thing for vendors to claim that their secret software is secure and has checks and balances. It is another thing for the public to be able to freely examine the publicly open software and discover if these claims are true.

Respectfully yours,