The Pentagon won't use an Internet voting system for overseas U.S. citizens this fall because of concerns about its security, an official said Thursday.All this is very nice, but the disclosure came just two days before Michigan used the Pentagon's system for their Democratic primary. (See below.)The official, who requested anonymity, said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made the decision to scrap the system because Pentagon officials were not certain they could "assure the legitimacy of votes that would be cast."
Computer security experts who last month reviewed the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, or SERVE, had urged the Pentagon to scrap the system, saying it was too vulnerable. The experts said the system could be penetrated by hackers who could change votes or gather information about users.
See also:
- Washington Post: Pentagon E-Voting Program Drops out of the Race
- CNET News.com: Pentagon Scraps Net Voting Plan
- Associated Press: Pentagon Cancels Internet Voting System
- New York Times: Online Voting Canceled For Americans Overseas
- BBC News: Pentagon E-Voting Program Scrapped
Thousands of Michigan Democrats have cast ballots for Saturday's caucuses using an Internet system that security experts say shares some of the risks found in a just-scrapped Pentagon effort.I guess they don't get it either. No matter how secure the voting system is made to be, it is the Internet itself that cannot be made secure.Party officials insist they have safeguards and note that these particular ballots, unlike those in the $22 million Pentagon program, are not meant to be secret.
. . .Voting in Michigan began in early January, long before the Pentagon decision, which reflects concerns that the legitimacy of Internet votes cannot be assured. Michigan party officials did not return calls seeking comment on the decision.
See also:
- PCWorld.com: Michigan Democrats Vote Online
- The president's new budget provides only $40 million of the $800 million promised for election improvements at the state level this year.
- The Election Assistance Commission was given only $2 million for its operating expenses this year, not the $10 million it was due.
- Hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated for making improvements at the state level, but the commission is too short of cash to distribute it. By law, the money cannot be disbursed until the states' plans appear in The Federal Register, and the commission cannot afford the $800,000 publishing cost.
The technology troubles that could bedevil elections this year in California, Georgia, Florida and elsewhere were absent in New Hampshire this week. That's because it is among the few states that require a paper record for every ballot cast.New Hampshire's relatively low-tech system — adopted after disasters with both antiquated punch cards and touch-screen computers — could become a nationwide model as scrutiny over electronic voting grows.
"Maybe people elsewhere trust machines more than they trust humans, but that would be totally out of the question here," said Secretary of State Bill Gardner, one of the longest-serving elections officials in the country. "I'm aghast that other places are considering touch-screen computers."