Online voting is an appealing option to speed voting for military and
overseas voters. Yet it is actually "Democracy Theater", providing an
expensive, risky illusion of supporting our troops. Technologists warn of the
unsolved technical challenges, while experience shows that the risks are
tangible and pervasive. There are safer, less expensive solutions
available.
This year, the Government Administration and Elections Committee held
hearings on a bill for online voting for military voters. Later they approved
a "technical bill", S.B. 939. Tucked at the end was a paragraph requiring
that the Secretary of the State "shall, within available appropriations,
establish a method to allow for on-line voting by military personnel
stationed out of state."
In 2008, over thirty computer scientists, security experts and technicians
signed the "Computer Technologists' Statement on Internet Voting," listing
five unsolved technical challenges and concluding: "[W]e believe it is
necessary to warn policymakers and the public that secure internet voting is
a very hard technical problem, and that we should proceed with internet
voting schemes only after thorough consideration of the technical and
non-technical issues in doing so."