[EM] CIVI Title and Summary Released (FWD)

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

Campaign for Digital Democracy

The Office of California's Attorney General today [Dec. 28, 1999 ??] released 
the official
version of the Title and Summary of the California Internet Voting
Initiative. This official Title and Summary will form the basis of the
initiative petitions that will soon begin circulating throughout the
state, on- and offline.

The initiative petitions calling for placing the CIVI on the November,
2000, ballot will need to be signed by 419,261 eligible California voters.

More news soon about where you and others will be able to access online
copies of this petition.

For now, here's the official language:

The Attorney General of California has prepared the following title and
summary of the chief purposes and points of the proposed measure:

ELECTIONS.  USE OF INTERNET FOR VOTER REGISTRATION AND VOTING.  INITIATIVE
STATUTE.  Authorizes use of Internet for electronic voter registration and
for casting ballots in direct primary elections, statewide general
elections, special elections, and other public elections.  Specifies
standards for Internet voting systems.  Requires Secretary of State to
test and certify voting systems to accredit means of identifying and
authenticating voters, to protect voter confidentiality, and to adopt
rules and regulations governing Internet voting procedures.  Requires
counties to offer Internet option to all voters.  Criminalizes efforts to
interfere with Internet election system; specifies penalties.  Preserves
traditional voting methods.

Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of
fiscal impact on state and local governments:  One-time costs to local
governments, probably several tens of millions of dollars statewide for
initial establishment of Internet registration and voting systems, with
ongoing annual costs probably ranging from the millions of dollars to the
low tens of millions of dollars statewide.  One-time costs to State of
developing standards for Internet voting and registration and of
implementing other provisions, probably in the tens of millions of
dollars, with ongoing implementation costs that could reach several
million dollars annually.  State costs could be partly offset to the
extent that fees are charged to local governments or private vendors
seeking accreditation of Internet election systems.

Regards,

Marc Strassman
Director of New Business Development, Political Jurisdictions
Votation.com

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