Electronic and Internet voting used to exist only as an idea of something to come in the future. With today's technology,
Internet voting is becoming a reality. Many corporations already use Internet voting as a convenient alternate method for stockholders to vote (Solop 1).
While the 2000 Presidential election will be remembered for "hanging chads", it was in that election year that the first votes cast over the Internet
were tabulated (Altman and Klass 1). Arizona took the opportunity to use the Internet as a method of voting for
the primaries with an astounding forty-six percent of the votes cast over the Internet (Solop 2).
This clearly illustrates that Internet voting benefits the electoral process. If the implementation of Internet voting occurs,
the United States could slowly phase out other methods of voting, and the United States could have one uniform method of voting,
which could make the tabulations of votes during an election a lot simpler.
Internet voting does have many positive effects, but one must consider the problems with this new method of voting before embracing it.
In the Arizona primary, there were many problems with Internet voting that stopped some of the voters from speaking their voice (Solop 2-3).
This of course asks the question: If Internet voting were introduced on a national scale, how would these problems affect the election?
Presumably, these seemingly minor problems could change the whole outcome of the election. S
uppose an election all came down to one state, and in that state the candidate who wins only surpasses the opponent by one vote.
Now this case seems a little extreme but it is not unbelievable, and it perfectly illustrates the point that two voters could have had
problems with the Internet system and planned on voting for the candidate who lost. As a result, the whole election means nothing
because the winning candidate does not represent the majority of the voters. This extreme situation represents only one of the aspects of
Internet voting that make citizens feel uneasy. The other major concern with Internet voting is of course, security.
Internet security has become one of the most important aspects of the technological age. When high-profile companies, such as CNN,
Yahoo, and Amazon.com had their websites taken down in 2000 by hackers, the world saw how insecure these seemingly secure systems are (Alvarez and Hall 7).
People find that if they cannot trust the current security systems then it seems impossible to trust these systems with something as important as a
presidential election. Ordinary citizens like Bronx resident Alfred Bertolacci do not "want to chance their vote being seen by others and possibly changed"
(Bertolacci). Computer viruses can easily infiltrate a computer system through e-mail or another type of exchange between computers.
These viruses can force the computer to do things that the user does not want to happen, like for example, changing a vote, or canceling a vote out
entirely (Ciampa 17-18).
A concern like this should bring closer attention to the security of procedures conducted over the Internet.
Computer security is something that needs vast improvement before the majority of people will begin to trust online voting.
Other voting technologies have recently entered stages of development and implementation, including electronic touch screen machines.
These machines' security systems cannot be fully trusted as some of Diebold's testing in California of the machines proves (Allen).
While these machines would seem to provide perfect tabulating in the results of an election, they would be irrelevant if a hacker or even
a manufacturer found a way to tamper with results.
All of these concerns with the coming technologies make people wonder if this move in electoral technology is really worth it.
The introduction of new methods of voting has faced much apprehension from the citizens of the United States.
Introducing new technologies means introducing new risks. If Internet voting were implemented on a national scale, then tampering with results could occur.
The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) currently has a deadline in place that requires all polling sites to have an electronic voting machine in place
by the first election after January 1, 2006 (Songini). As you can see, Internet voting is on the horizon and currently used in some parts of some
states, despite major security flaws. You need to ask yourselves one question: does your own security and privacy hold higher importance over the
implementation of Internet voting.
Security flaws need to be addressed before implementation can happen.