NSF REPORT CONCLUDES INTERNET VOTING IS NO “MAGIC BALLOT”

A recently released report commissioned by the National Science Foundation concludes that trials should proceed in which Internet terminals are used at traditional polling places, but remote voting from home or the workplace is not viable in the near future. The report, which was commissioned by the White House in December 1999 and developed with input from an October 2000 workshop organized by the Internet Policy Institute (http://www.internetpolicy.org ) and the University of Maryland, calls for further research into complex security and reliability obstacles that for now impede the Internet’s use in public elections. Key findings include:

• Poll site Internet voting systems offer some benefits and could be responsibly deployed within the next several election cycles.
• The next step beyond poll site voting would be to deploy kiosk voting terminals in non-traditional public voting sites.
• Remote Internet voting systems pose significant risk and should not be used in public elections until substantial technical and social science issues are addressed.
• Internet-based voter registration poses significant risk to the integrity of the voting process, and should not be implemented for the foreseeable future.

The report recommends further research on the economics, design, certification and policies of poll site Internet voting, the technical factors of security, encryption and authentication of using kiosks and remote voting, and political science issues of how poll site and remote Internet voting would affect participation, the character of elections and democracy itself

See related press release at: http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?pr0118  

View the Report of the National Workshop on Internet Voting: Issues and Research Agenda (Internet Policy Institute, March 2001) at http://www.internetpolicy.org/research/results.html  

From the IEEE-USA Eye on Washington (03/21/01).

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