[EM] Internet Voting To Be Tested in 2000 Election

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

Internet Voting To Be Tested in 2000 Election

By Karen Pierog
.c Reuters

CHICAGO (Nov. 4) - Next year's U.S. presidential election may provide an 
opportunity to pioneer yet another use for the Internet -- voting for 
political candidates.

The prospect has sparked interest from several states and the U.S. government 
and has hatched a number of Internet voting vendors.

At least two state political parties are considering using the Internet for 
their primary elections. Arizona Democrats are planning to offer Internet 
voting as a supplement to regular balloting for their March 11 party-run 
presidential primary, said Cortland Coleman, political director for the state 
party. Voters will be able to vote from their home computers or at Internet 
sites set up throughout the state, he added.

And the Idaho State Democratic Party is exploring the possibility of offering 
Internet voting as part of its March 4 presidential caucuses, according to 
Brit Groom, the state party chairman. However, software the party developed 
with a local company may not be ready in time for the vote, he said.
For the November 2000 presidential election, the U.S. Government plans to 
allow up to 350 members of the military stationed overseas to vote over the 
Internet, according to Polli Brunelli, director of the Federal Voting 
Assistance Program.

The voting will be limited to certain counties in South Carolina, Florida, 
Texas and Utah that have agreed to participate in an Internet voting pilot 
program. ''What we're doing is a small controlled experiment to test the 
ability to do it,'' Brunelli said.

SHAREHOLDER VOTES AND MOCK ELECTIONS

Internet voting has been used by companies holding shareholder votes. Oak 
Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's Corp. has allowed shareholder proxy voting over 
the Internet for a couple of years in addition to mail-in proxies, according 
to spokeswoman Anna Rozenich.

She said the fast-food giant has seen incremental increases in shareholder 
participation in Internet voting.

In the government arena, where election officials are tempted by the promise 
of faster vote tallies and increased voter participation through the 
convenience of the Internet, only mock elections with a limited number of 
voters have been held so far.

Last Tuesday, for example, voters in two Iowa counties were allowed to revote 
on Internet computers for local elections. Secretary of State Chet Culver 
said about 30 percent of voters revoted in the experiment.

''We tried it, it went very well and now we have to analyze the results to 
see where we go from here,'' he said, adding that he viewed Internet voting 
as a way to get young people to vote.

In October, VoteHere.net, which also supplied the technology for the Iowa 
vote, held what it called the largest-known multi-county mock election in 
Internet history in which more than 4,200 students in several Virginia 
counties voted from computers at their high schools.

''I think in a public sense, (Internet voting) could begin as early as next 
year, at least in some trial fashion,'' said Jim Adler, president and chief 
executive officer of VoteHere.net.

He said the company, which would supply the systems for the Arizona 
Democratic primary, also held four successful trials in its home state of 
Washington earlier this year.

Adler's company is marketing an election system that authenticates a voter, 
protects the secrecy of a ballot through 1024-bit public-key encryption, 
tallies the votes and allows for an election audit.

SECURITY CONCERNS

One big issue that must be addressed is vote security, like the potential for 
elections to be manipulated by anyone from a mischievous computer hacker to a 
sinister foreign government, he said. Others are the identity or coercion of 
voters, the cost of adopting an Internet voting system and the problem of 
keeping how someone voted a secret.

''There are more issues here than meet the eye,'' regarding Internet voting, 
said Doug Lewis, executive director of The Election Center, an administrative 
and educational organization for state and local election officials.

''Until we can be sure it has integrity, that the election is an accurate 
reflection of the public will, we don't want to jump head long into that 
notion,'' Lewis said.
Louisiana Republicans, who planned to hold a January caucus vote over the 
Internet, dropped the idea for security reasons, according to Connie Chittom, 
deputy chairman of the state's Republican Party.

Many believe that small steps will be taken on the route to Internet voting, 
starting most probably with setting up an Internet computer loaded with 
ballot information at polling or other public places.

Alfie Charles, chairman of California's Internet Voting Task Force, which 
plans to roll out an Internet voting study in December, said once an Internet 
voting system is certified for the state, the first step would be to make it 
available at polling places. A second step would allow voters to cast ballots 
at polling places other than their own, while a final step would make voting 
available from home or office.

The California study also raises a litany of concerns similar to the ones 
voiced by Lewis, as well as the possibility of viruses invading personal and 
election computer systems.

Lewis said Internet voting could become a reality, as long as potential 
concerns are identified and addressed.

''One thing we don't want to do is disenfranchise voters,'' Lewis said. ''No 
one wants their vote to go off into Never-Never land.''

REUTERS  Reut12:29 11-04-99