Belgian politicians choose treason risk over trusting engineers

Belgian politicians would rather risk treason charges than trust the engineers who built their voting software. This is not a hypothetical: the country's electoral commission has threatened legal action against any expert who audits the system.

Why it matters

When the people who write the code are forbidden from verifying it, democracy itself becomes a black box. The Belgian case shows that the real threat isn't technical failure—it's the refusal to allow transparency.

Engineers are the only ones who can spot backdoors, bugs, or manipulation. Treating them as potential traitors doesn't protect elections; it ensures that no one can prove they're safe.

What the context says

• Belgium uses digital voting machines that produce no paper trail, making recounts impossible.
• The electoral commission has explicitly warned that any independent analysis of the software could be considered a breach of secrecy—punishable as treason.
• Similar bans on auditing exist in other countries, but Belgium's is among the most aggressive.
• Security researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that electronic voting systems can be hacked without detection.
• The law prioritizes the appearance of security over actual verification.

What you can do

1. Check your own voting system. Find out if your jurisdiction uses paper ballots or electronic machines with a verifiable audit trail.
2. Support open-source voting software. Demand that election code be publicly available for review, as is done in some Swiss cantons.
3. Ask your representatives: "Why can't independent experts verify the vote count?" The answer will tell you everything.

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