[EM] Arizona To Pioneer Internet Voting

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

Arizona To Pioneer Internet Voting

By SCOTT THOMSEN
.c The Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) - Hoping to appeal to young computer-savvy voters and raise 
interest in their party's presidential primary, Arizona Democrats plan to 
hold what elections experts say will be the first binding Internet balloting 
for public office. 

Choosing candidates from home with a simple click of a computer mouse could 
boost turnout for the March 11 primary, though some worry about the potential 
for fraud. 

``This will be the first thing to come along to motivate people to vote since 
the repeal of the poll tax,'' said state Democratic Chairman Mark Fleisher. 

But Deborah Phillips, president of the Voting Integrity Project in Arlington, 
Va., has concerns. 

``Anyone who's spent an hour on the Internet knows the potential for things 
to go wrong,'' said Phillips, a frequent Internet user. She cited potential 
problems as hackers, people trying to cast someone else's ballot, loss of 
voting privacy and a lack of access to computers in some communities that 
might skew results. 

Party officials in Arizona are still completing details of how the election 
will be run. But to vote online from home, voters would complete a form 
printed from the party's Web site, choose a personal identification code, 
sign it and mail it to the party. Once the signature is verified, 
confirmation would be sent to the voter by e-mail. 

To vote, the individual would go to the Web site and enter the identification 
code. 

Democratic officials also plan to have several dozen voting locations with a 
computer at each site for individuals who don't have one at home. Paper 
ballots also would be available for those who prefer the traditional method 
of voting. 

Arizona's Democratic primary would be the first election for public office to 
use the Internet, said Doug Lewis, executive director of The Election Center 
in Houston. 

Fleisher said he expects 25,000 to 40,000 people to vote in the party-run 
primary. 

Arizona will hold a state-run presidential primary Feb. 22, in which 
Republicans will vote using paper ballots at hundreds of traditional polling 
places. 

The Internet previously has been used in test election runs in five 
Washington state counties and a mock statewide election in Iowa. 

Vote Here Inc. of Kirkland, Wash., is one of several companies Arizona 
Democrats have talked with about running the computer side of their election. 

Jim Adler, the company's chief executive officer, said the key to successful 
Internet voting is to give it as many anti-fraud protections as with the 
popular absentee ballot. 

His company requires a written signature before allowing someone to vote 
online, encrypts all transmissions to prevent them from being intercepted, 
operates backup network servers to avoid system crashes, stores all votes on 
CD-ROM and sends a confirmation message once a vote has been recorded. 

Among its advantages, Adler said, the Internet allows voters to obtain 
information about candidates at the same place they vote, creates the 
convenience of a limitless number of polling places and may connect better 
with 18- to 24-year-olds, who are some of the most disenfranchised voters. 
All of those factors could mean increased participation, he said. 

Young adults' participation in elections has been declining at a greater rate 
than participation by the rest of the population, said Curtis Gans, director 
of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate. Voters aged 18 to 
24 were more of a force in 1992 than in any year since 18-year-olds got the 
right to vote in 1971, Gans said. 

In 1992, young adults voted at a 38 percent rate, compared with 55 percent 
for the overall population. But by 1996, voter turnout for that age group had 
dropped by 10 percentage points and remained significantly below turnout for 
the overall population. 

Polls have suggested that voters, especially younger ones, overwhelmingly 
like computers and technology, and support the idea of Internet voting. 

``It's easy and it takes less time,'' said Cesar Marin, a 22-year-old 
Democrat who spends about two hours a day online. ``I would say 80 percent of 
the people my age are on the Internet.'' 

A lot could be riding on Arizona's experiment. 

California and Washington are considering similar Internet voting programs, 
and other states are watching. 

Likewise, the Army plans a pilot program that would allow foreign-based 
soldiers and civilians from five states - Florida, Missouri, South Carolina, 
Texas and Utah - to vote online next year. 

``It will take one state stepping out and doing this,'' said Phillips of the 
Voting Integrity Project, ``and all of the other states will be piling on.'' 

AP-NY-12-04-99 0124EDT