Today is "Founder's Day" at Woodbury University, but I decided not to attend. Instead I took the opportunity to sleep in and take it easy. I don't regret the decision.

Today is also SFVLUG meeting, and I'm debating the wisdom of perhaps either giving it a miss or just attending briefly. I really do have other things I should be doing instead, not the least of which is schoolwork. Chores need to be done here too.

Yesterday, in the midst of Friday "sneak the bad news out over the transom" day, it turned out that Herr Gropenfuhrer actually did something good for a change. He signed SB 370, a State Senate bill which outlaws "black box voting" in California, and mandates that every voting machine used in California have a voter-verified paper trail...meaning that when you vote on a computerized voting machine, you will be able to confirm that your vote is your vote. Although the Secretary of State considered this law too burdensome to his office, he has also mandated that voting machine companies submit their code to be reviewed by computer experts selected by his office.

Taken together, these two actions mean no more black box voting in California. I would have preferred it if Free and Open Source software became the gold standard in the Golden State, but maybe that's a little too much to ask.

Text of the bill
Oakland Tribune: California to put e-voting to the test