Posted on 07/07/2004 8:54:42 AM PDT by solicitor77
CHICAGO, July 7 (UPI) -- Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., announced his pick for the Democratic Party's vice presidential nomination Tuesday on the Internet, but how long will it be before voters actually get to choose the president and the vice president with a few keystrokes online?
Sooner than many have predicted -- perhaps within four to eight years.
"We're one presidential election, or maybe two presidential elections, away from Internet voting," said Ron Klein, a state senator and Democratic Party leader in the Florida Senate, who was involved in the 2000 election recount in Florida.
"There's no question that Internet voting is the future of voting," he told United Press International.
Just a few months ago, many of the computing -- and political - cognoscenti prematurely wrote-off Internet voting. That preconception was due to a number of converging factors.
For example, the Pentagon killed a project to let soldiers and sailors vote online, after a report by computer scientists David Wagner, Avi Rubin and David Jefferson, representing, respectively, the University of California, Berkeley; the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, indicated the system had "security vulnerabilities" that could jeopardize voter privacy and allow "votes to be altered."
Another controversy arose over an electronic voting system in California. The reliability of the voting machines was doubted, so implementation of the scheme was postponed.
"The hazards of e-voting are immense," Allan Saxe, associate professor of political science at University of Texas in Arlington, told UPI.
Nevertheless, backers of the electronic voting technology, in academia, politics and in the business world, are promoting the prospect of Internet voting in the coming years -- but not as the only option available.
Rather, they say, Internet voting will be one of many available means of casting a ballot, including voting on the day of the election at one's own polling place, absentee voting, or voting at a precinct far from home with an electronic swipe card. New, computing technologies and encrypted, secure software are making this possible.
Contact: Gene Koprowski covers telecommunications for UPI Science News. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
"The hazards of e-voting are immense," Allan Saxe, associate professor of political science at University of Texas in Arlington, told UPI. Nevertheless, backers of the electronic voting technology, in academia, politics and in the business world, are promoting the prospect of Internet voting
[much like MA Rats have pushed thru a law to take away the current Repub Governors responsibility to appoint Kerry's successor, should he - perish the thought - be elected]
Frankly, if you can't be bothered to get off your ass to go vote*, you shouldn't be voting.
*Reasonable accomodations for people who have legitimate difficulties in getting to the polls are obviously a different matter.
1. Email addresses are easy.
2. Voting for friends and family that don't vote is easier.
3. Cookies and IP's are easy to get past even from a novice.
No way.
AMEN!
What's your gut feeling? Do you think online voting would benefit the Pubbies or the Dims?
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