You know I have a bee in my bonnet when I blog twice on the same topic in the space of a scant few hours after a blogging hiatus of several months (well it's either that or I'm scatterbrained; your pick).

I don't want to let this slide. e-voting is too important. I'm not the Welfare Minister, but we live in a country where that person should answer to the people and perhaps we just need to shout loudly enough. So I have decided to draft a petition, and I need your help.

I have composed the text below in English and in Danish for two reasons:

• Because my Danish can be horrible. I am posting the text here first so the community can help me brush it up if needed.
• Because I will encourage non-Danes to sign it too. We have a chance here to set a good example of open source e-voting, and I think there's a lot of people beyond our borders who would care quite a lot (I will be providing a "I am/am not Danish" choice in the petition)

I want to leave this up for a few days to let any input trickle in; do leave a comment if you agree, disagree, think the Danish or English text needs amendment, or think it doesn't. In a few days, I will stick this up on PetitionOnline.com and then begin to see what strings can be pulled, buttons pushed, interests piqued, and speed dials called to collect signatories.

Og forresten aner jeg overhovedet ikke hvorfor jeg aldrig skriver blog posts på dansk... Old habits die hard, kan man formode.

Draft petition text follows:

Petition to Karen Jespersen, Velfærdsminister og minister for ligestilling (Welfare Minister and Minister for Equal Rights)

We, the undersigned, through this letter register our disapproval with the Danish Welfare Ministry over the Ministry's position concerning the use of open source software in e-voting systems.

It has come to the public's attention that the Welfare Ministry as stakeholder in the requirements specification development for e-voting software has advised municipalities against mandating that the e-voting software be open source.

We will not use e-voting systems which are not open source. It is our opinion that black box voting software poses a threat to our democracy by hiding the mechanism by which we elect our representatives. Experiences with black box e-voting software in other countries support a healthy distrust of non-open source e-voting systems.

We will use paper and pen before using an e-voting system which is not open source. We hereby request that you re-examine the Ministry's position in this matter and correct your position such that you stand in favor of open source e-voting systems.

Vi underskrevne ønsker gennem denne underskriftsindsamling at erklære vores utilfredshed med Velfærdsministeriet angående dets stilling med hensyn til brug af open source software til elektroniske afstemningssystemer.

Det er blevet offentliggjort at Velfærdsministeriet som stakeholder og deltager i formulering af kravspecificationer til det endelige e-valg system har anbefalet kommunerne ikke at sige at det skal være open source.

Vi nægter at benytte os af e-valg systemer som ikke er open source. Vores holdning er at uigennemsigtigt "black box" e-valg software truer vores demokrati ved forplumring af mekanismen gennem hvis vi vælger vores repræsentanter. Erfaringer i andre lande med ikke-open-source e-valg software giver styrke til rationaliteten at nære mistillid til andet end open source e-valg systemer.

Vi vil bruge almindelige valgkort og stemmesedler frem for et ikke-open source e-valg system. Hermed opfordrer vi ministeriet til at revidere dets anbefaling i denne sag og til at rette dets holdning til et gennemskueligt elektronisk demokrati via open source.