Paul Holly

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Private Election Companies Should Have Benefit of Trade Secrets

The general value of trade secret protection, perhaps taken for granted in less scrutinized trades, also applies to the private election equipment industry. The private election companies that create election equipment and software are in competition with other companies supplying their own versions. Trade secret protection provides incentives to put effort and capital into product development, product innovation, and advances in procedure and industry innovation. There are less incentives to do this, however, when competitors can appropriate the benefit of the work as soon as it is released. Those companies investing in computer source code development particularly benefit from trade secret protection.

Trade Secret Policy and Election Companies

There is some conflict with trade secrecy policy application to private election companies and a desire for transparency in government. When the issue is as critical to the interaction between the citizens and their government as elections are, the policy behind trade secrets must be examined to determine whether an exception should be made. Transparency is generally a desired trait in government. It is a means of holding elected officials accountable for their actions and reducing corruption among those officials. If the consequences are serious enough, there are exceptions to the desire for government transparency, however, such as when national security is determined to be at stake. Government itself does not necessarily suffer consequences for lack of innovation if not granted trade secret protection of its governmental secrets and the public policy reasons do not apply as much.