— you may well own these things in the future, but if today’s system is anything to go by, you’ll very rarely control the code inside them. Tech firms have control over the initial design of their products, determining their “formal and technical” properties as well as their “range of possibilities of utilisation.” And they’ll obviously retain control over platforms— like social media applications — that remain under their direct ownership. But they’ll also control the code in devices they sell. That means that technology we buy for one purpose can be reprogrammed without our consent or even our knowledge.This is the heart of the need for Evidence Based Elections. Elections that are Software Independent, that can be verified independent of the technology. Elections that are Publicly Verifiable, that can be verified independent of the election officials by multiple members of the public, candidates, and parties.
