Thumbs Down On Internet Voting
A new report commissioned by the National Science Foundation says that that voters should not be allowed to cast ballots via the Internet from home or the office. Questions regarding security, reliability and social effects need to be answered before e-voting becomes a common occurrence.
The White House asked for the study in December 1999 after questions arose over potential deficiencies in the 2000 presidential election. Election officials are looking for new ways ensure the integrity of the balloting process. Prior to the 2000 elections, interest in online voting was centered on the ease and convenience of voting online. Now issues of reliability and security are of utmost importance.
The 2000 elections demonstrated the "critical importance of ensuring confidence in the integrity and fairness of elections systems," the report said.
The University of Maryland and the Internet Policy Institute were given a grant from the foundation to study the issue. Election officials, computer experts, and political scientists were among those who worked on the problem.
The report urged officials to resist pressures to embrace "remote Internet voting systems" as a technological cure-all for the problems – such as faulty voting systems and inconsistent ballot counting standards - that plagued the voting process last November.
"E-voting requires a much greater lever of security than e-commerce. It's not like buying a book over the Internet," said C.D. Mote Jr., chairman of the committee that studied the issue and president of the University of Maryland. "Remote Internet voting technology will not be able to meet this standard for years to come."
"The security problems that could arise might well undermine the legitimacy of the electoral process," said David Cheney, of the Internet Policy Institute. "We must dispel the myths associated with Internet voting and educate public officials to avoid this scenario."
The report also warned that Internet-based voter registration poses "a risk to the integrity of the voting process and should not be implemented in the foreseeable future. "
The report did endorse limited testing of Internet voting at polling places. It cited the benefits of convenience and efficiency, and noted that election officials could control security and the technology of the process. It recommended poll-site experiments "to gain valuable experience prior to full-scale implementation."
The reports suggested more studies be done on encryption techniques and urged political scientist to examine how voter participation would be affected by changes in the voting process.
Voter turnout has been dropping steadily over the years. Just over half of those eligible to do so, voted in 2000.
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