Eruption Over E-Voting in Arizona
It's
too early to know whether Bill Bradley or Al Gore will win the Arizona
Democratic Party primary on March 11, 2000. But if the election goes according
to plan, almost every voter in the primary will make worldwide history by
casting a ballot over the Internet.
This
month, the party agreed to become the first political organization anywhere on
the globe to hold a legally binding election over the Internet. And whether
voting from home or a local schoolhouse, most of Arizona's anticipated 20,000
to 40,000 voters will use the Net to vote.
The
development disturbs some voter education groups. At least one is considering
legal action to stop the primary. "I'm very troubled that a public election is
going to occur with an untried, unproven technology," said Deborah Philips, who
studies online voting issues for the Voting Integrity Project. Philips said
that she has spoken to Washington-based election law attorney M. Miller Baker
about pursuing legal responses to the party's decision to use Net voting.
Baker
confirmed that he is "looking at" the possibility of suing the Arizona party.
"We have grave doubts whether an election by this method would comport with
minimal constitutional requirements for a fraud-free election."
Regardless of whether a lawsuit is filed, Arizona's planned primary
demonstrates that online voting has moved rapidly from a controversial theory
to a real business. According to one estimate, there are over half a million
public elections in the United States every year. That creates a potential
multimillion-dollar market for companies providing voting services.
Arizona Democratic Party officials have hired Votation.com, a Garden City, Long Island-based firm which
is less than a year old. In a separate announcement, Votation.com also
disclosed this week that it has received a minority equity investment from
VeriSign, the publicly traded digital certification firm based in Mountain
View, Calif.
Neither the officials nor Votation.com would provide a figure for how much the
service costs, although Votation.com President Mel Schrieberg, who has handled
many elections for labor unions and nonprofit groups, says that organizations
using it "save substantially on postage and paper."
Indeed, the Arizona Democratic Party will use Internet ballots not just for
remote voters, but even at polling places. "We'll have paper ballots [at
polling places] for those who are afraid to use the Net, mostly because of
unfamiliarity," says Arizona state party chairman Mark Fleisher. "But I would
guess that 95 percent of the ballots cast statewide will be over the
Internet."
Remote
Internet voters will, like those using absentee ballots, have a slightly wider
voting window than those going to physical locations. The Net "polls" will be
open from 12:01 a.m. on Friday, March 10, until 7:01 p.m., Saturday, March 11,
when the physical polling booths will close as well.
Both
the state party and Votation.com downplay any concerns about potential voter
fraud. According to the company, voters will be able to verify their identity
using their date of birth and a digital signature. Critics point out, however,
that neither the Federal Election Commission nor the state of Arizona has
certified any standards for Internet voting.
Although Arizona Democrats
would probably be the largest group affected by any potential Net voting fraud
or security breach, the campaigns for Bill Bradley and Al Gore would also
presumably be affected. If, however, the Gore campaign is worried, they're not
saying so publicly. "We view anything that helps expand participation in the
electoral process as a positive development," says Ben Green, director of
Internet operations, Gore 2000. The Bradley campaign declined to provide a
comment for this story.
