Super Tuesday primaries last week brought many surprises on the presidential election front -- along with one striking innovation. For the first time, a sizable set of Americans was able to vote in a meaningful election over the Internet.To be sure, they were not voting on American soil. It was Democrats abroad who became the innovators. Still, their Internet voting experiment exposes a few hazards to expanding the process in the general election.
In this case, responding to the logistical challenge of large numbers of Americans living and working overseas -- with unreliable mail service in many countries -- the Democratic Party decided to try online voting for one week, across Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. Voters could go to the Website votefromabroad.org to apply for an online ballot; once authenticated, the voter would get a pin number to vote. Republicans continued to rely on the old system of absentee balloting, conceding that the Democrats would have a higher turnout.
But the experiment in online voting had several pitfalls attached to it. The first is that the system only applies to the primary, run by the party. In the fall, when general election time rolls around, run by the states, voters abroad will all have to go back to absentee ballots, hoping they can get them on time, turn them around, and have the postal system work well enough to get the ballots to their homes to make them count.Voters who revel in the ease of Internet balloting will have to come down to earth, and many may be confused, or act too late.
Second, the use of online voting, despite the assurances of its administrators, remains insecure and prone to manipulation or fraud. At a variety of conferences over the past few years, with participation by the big technology players, virtually all the experts conceded that we are far away from having enough security to making i-voting a realistic alternative, with the results coming in over the Web. If Microsoft, Google, and the Defense Department can be hacked, so can voting machines.
Finally, Internet voting means the loss of the “zone of privacy” that voting at the polls provides, allowing spouses to look over their partners’ shoulders, or employers or pastors to do the same.For Americans abroad, that is inevitable, since most will cast absentee ballots in any case, with no zone of privacy. But for voters in the U.S., it is a real problem -- one growing in any event as absentee balloting and vote-by-mail take off around the country.Internet voting may prove irresistibly popular for its convenience, but if and when it expands beyond an occasional experiment, it will create its own set of problems.
— Norman J. Ornstein, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
I've been advocating and attempting to drive a long-term view of elections because I am very concerned about the long-term costs of elections for taxpayers. Few would deny that elections are the foundation of our democracy and, perhaps, the most important government service, but as a country we don't really put our money behind that belief (recognize, for instance, the low pay election workers get for what will be a 14-hour day in November--most will get $100 or less). I've been an advocate of open source technology in elections, but that's got a long way to go before it happens.
The Help America Vote Act authorized the Election Assistance Commission, which has done a lot of good work, but the processes created stifle innovation. Nothing can be implemented without certification and certification is a very onerous and costly process.
It's really an odd industry. Four primary vendors, high barrier to entry, and yet the vendors are hardly thriving financially. That creates considerable financial risk for communities, and, downstream to taxpayers. There are lots of smart people looking at long-term voting solutions and, also, unfortunately, many seemingly credible individuals who are pursuing things for their own self-interest.
In any event, the "vote by Internet" question often comes up, but it is years away, to the point that the Internet won't even be the Internet as we know it by the time this might be possible. (FYI, though, there are special rules and some electronic solutions for military and other traveling U.S. citizens. You can see details at http://www.fvap.gov/).
I mainly agree with Modza and Murugan here. First things first, why don't we solve issues with 'regular' or electronic voting first? With the '04 Diebold scandal fresh in mind, this seems priority number one to me.
Other than that, the two other arguments that dr. Ornstein mentions against online voting don't seem that crucial to me. Arguing against online voting because people might get confused when having to go 'back' to regular voting next fall is the kind of reversed logic that adds little to the discussion. Technological innovation and progress imply testing and prototyping. Moreover, I think one should never judge a new technology because of the prominence of older technologies: at first, older technologies are always more prominent than newer alternatives. Should experiments with online banking have been discouraged because it might confuse people in relation to 'old school' banking? Of course not!
Concerning the privacy issue: there might arise some conflicts with the principle of secret ballot, but to my knowledge there's nothing in the constitution requiring secret ballots. Given the amount of caucuses held during primary elections, privacy doesn't seem that much of an issue here.
To respond to Nicole: I'm pleasantly surprised to find out how politically active many people are here in the States. Big turn outs are pretty common here, which I think is a very good thing. Where I'm from, and in many other European countries, election turnouts have been very low over the last decade. Given this situation, I'm not at all attached to the nostalgia of showcasing one's civic duty by going out to vote. I'm all for any (safe) alternative that will get more people to vote therefore. But I still see your point!
Nice to hear you sound a little bit archaic and overtly patriotic!!! I agreed with you that the real problem of online voting would be cultural rather than technological. There will always be an inherent flaw in any online voting software but the irregularities should be reduce to the barest minimum. I don't have a problem using this method for absentee votes even though earlier trials have been stall due to security fears:
Besides the absentee voting, why should any one dare suggest that we should use this method 'in land'? Why would they want to take away that wonderful experience of yours on Super Tuesday or reduce it to mere clicks??? I've voted thrice and would certainly not in any position to trade-off that experince!!! Those who are making the argument for it that it will boost turn out are simply not up to reality. I've no sympathy for peolpe who choose not to vote no matter the reasons they put forward and to carve a way for them to do so complacently demean the passion and patriotism shown by those who choose to vote. I'm joing you in hoping that such measures never come to fruition despite the odds against us:
There are just too many gross violations that have occurred from electronic voting machines in the past few years to be able to trust the validity of an online voting system.There is the whole issue of having paper trails for electronic voting machines because of the numerous glitches that have been reported from their use.In addition, if these systems are vulnerable for hacking then the potential for online systems will certainly be greater.
These voting machines are produced by private companies who might or might not have partisan preferences which could lead to tampering with the results collected from these machines.There are many citizens who are distrustful of the current voting system that their suspicions would certainly grow if an online e-voting system was created by a private corporation.It is too risky for our Democracy to rely on such systems.
On the other hand, voting from the comfort of one’s own home could lead to a larger turnout on Election Day.Look at how swarms of voters cast in their vote for such reality TV shows such as American Idol.If an online e-voting system was to become available, it would need to be extremely secure, paper trails made available to both the voter and the election committee, and the record keeping would have to be made available to the public for verification by various election committees.
Not to sound like a real Luddite or anything, but I'm sort of glad we're not ready to implement an online voting system here in the U.S. just yet. Actually, I wouldn't totally mind if this never came to be. At the risk of sounding both archaic and overly patriotic, I like the idea of people coming out to vote. I even got a weird sense of pride walking into the election center on Super Tuesday and seeing other people who came out for the same reason I did (even though for SOME reason my name wasn't in the book and I had to fill out my ballot by hand... sigh...). Anyway, as secretive as voting is, I like the idea of keeping it active and off the Internet where everything just seems less emotional and previously passionate activities become passive points and clicks.
Moreover, while this was helpful for those overseas and away from home, if we here at home are only willing to vote if it can be done from our couch while we're catching Real World re-runs or something, then the real problem is the societal mindset, not the limits on the present technology.
All of the, um, one major problem you allude to - one person, one vote - is the same problem for all voting systems. Except for the "secrecy" of the choice. You probably did not vote in any of the recent Democratic party primaries here in the States, but where I was, with people borrowing pens and asking for scraps of paper to record their votes, there wasn't much privacy either.
I haven't been part of the theoretical discussions of the pitfalls of online voting, and I'm sure, as you say, the more common it is, the more problems will be revealed. But that's how we'll find and fix them. So far, nothing you've raised is (yet) as serious as the disenfranchisement of voters through purging of voter rolls in advance -- in my humble opinion, the worst case of voter fraud in the last 40 years in the U.S.
My equally modest proposal for the potential problems of online voter fraud is to look at the other online activity that could have been discredited (literally) by fraud: financial transactions. If Visa is content to do business online, I have a feeling the voting security problem can be solved.I know, I know, we don't want to go back to the days of the poll tax, or of having to be a property owner to vote. Or do you?
Back to the secrecy of the ballot from your spouse: come on! My spouse and I have completely independent lives online, when we want to. If you're concerned, get a privacy screen on your monitor. Close the door. Ask her to look the other way. I've got more...
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This evening, I came home from a reception and panel discussion about the impact of war on families of those in the military. It was a wrenching discussion, in many ways, with descriptions of wives with several children at home and no support network. These families live far from military bases, and the stories of those in the National Guard and Reserves are particularly tough. For many of them, survival has come by building their own networks and communities -- over the Internet, on iVillage. Tens of thousands of military spouses, parents, and grandparents have found that the Internet is a lifeline.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
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While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
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Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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