Problem: the voting machines report numbers that don’t add up.
Attempted solution: local authorites commision an independent audit of the machines to determine the source of the problem.
Checkmate: the vendor prevents the audit by threatening to sue to protect its “Intellectual Property.”
This is exactly why all voting machines should be required to use open source software throughout: to make sure that effective audits will always be possible. Of course no commercially available voting machines actually do this. As always the industry’s motto is “Trust us. Shut up. Just trust us.”
UPDATE: A judge orders the review to proceed, although the report won’t be available in time to do anything about it before the November elections.