Does the Internet represent the future of voting?

• Position: Technology - Brief Article

Elections of the future may be more convenient, accurate, and faster for voters and election officials if researchers can improve the technology for voting via the Internet. Another factor is whether election officials can entice voters to use the technology and make it accessible to them. With interest increasing in voting reform and modernization since the 2000 presidential election, researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Atlanta, have begun studies of the social and technical issues related to voting via the Internet.

"People wonder why they can't vote over the Internet if they can buy things over the Internet," indicates Betty Whitaker, a principal research engineer at GTRI. "But then they consider the possibility of a security breach and its effects.... We believe that, over time, as the Internet evolves, and the research and the hardware and software evolve, researchers will be able to resolve some of the concerns about Internet voting."

The GTRI Internet Voting Research Team envisions that Internet voting will occur in phases during the next decade. Within the next few years, military personnel casting absentee ballots probably will be allowed to vote via the Internet. The Federal Voting Assistance Program conducted a pilot project in November, 2000, involving 84 overseas voters. The success of this project provided encouragement for researchers in Internet voting, yet pointed to some problems in the system, such as lost passwords.

By 2008, researchers predict, Internet voting for absentee ballots will be adopted in a few states. Moreover, voters may be able to cast their ballots at automated teller machines (ATMs) and at kiosks in post offices and malls. Then, by 2012, some states--for example, Oregon, which already uses only mail-in ballots--will be the first to adopt Internet voting, researchers say.

One of the primary issues related to Internet voting is access. "It is the `Digital...