Kevin Drum met with candidate for Secretary of State Debra Bowen, and had this to say (in an otherwise very positive report of the interview)…

She explained why legislation to require open source software for voting machines is likely to fail (Microsoft doesn’t like it)…

I’m sure there’s quite a bit more to it than this, but we’re not going to get top-level secure and reliable voting machines because Microsoft doesn’t like it? I think not. I’m not even a Microsoft hater. (chalk it up to reading Galbraith) But they most certainly do not get to decide policy on this. What’s the rest of the story here?