Ariz. Demos plan nation's first Internet vote

Saturday, 27 November 1999
http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/LD0476.html

The Associated Press
Mark Fleisher, Arizona Democratic Party chairman, reviews the www.azdem.org Web site for use in the March primary.


PHOENIX (AP) - Being 25th in the nation, the Arizona Democratic primary doesn't get much attention. But the voting even presidential candidates haven't seemed to notice could become notable for how it's conducted.
State party leaders plan to allow voters to cast ballots for the March 11 primary over the Internet, a first for a presidential primary or any binding vote for public office in the country, according to party officials.
Party Chairman Mark Fleisher called it a ``first in the world.''
Party officials are still finalizing the details of how the election will run, but their plan is to set up 36 to 43 voting locations, including at least one in every legislative district and county.
Officials hope to have computers set up to allow Internet voting at each polling place as well as from home computers. Paper ballots would also be available.
To vote online from home, voters would fill out a form they could download from the party's Web site, choose a personal identification code, sign it and mail it to the party.
Once the signature is verified, confirmation would be sent to the voter by e-mail. On election day, the voter would open the party's Web site, enter the identification code and cast the electronic ballot.
At the polling places, the check-in would be done in person before the voter is cleared to fill out an Internet ballot.
``Most of it would be on the Internet if we can do it that way,'' Fleisher said. ``That is our goal.''
Fleisher said he expects 25,000 to 40,000 people to vote in the primary, which is being run by the party because of a conflict between state law and Democratic Party rules.
The Democratic National Committee does not allow state parties to hold their primaries or caucuses before the first Tuesday in March, with the exception of traditional election starters Iowa and New Hampshire.
Arizona will have its state-run primary election with paper ballots at hundreds of traditional polling places Feb. 22, so the Democrats must hold their own.
That opens the door for the party to try the Internet, which has previously been used in the United States for voting in college student body elections and on some non-binding resolutions.
Vote Here Inc. of Kirkland, Wash., is one of several companies Arizona Democrats have been talking with to run the computer side of their election.
``It provides another avenue, another point of access to cast ballots,'' Chief Executive Officer Jim Adler said.
Among its advantages, the Internet allows voters to obtain information about candidates at the same place they vote, creates the convenience of a limitless number of polling places and may connect better with 18-to-24-year-olds, who are some of the most disenfranchised voters, Adler said.
Polls have shown that voters within that age group support the idea of Internet voting, though they also cite concerns about fraud.
Deborah Phillips, president of the Voting Integrity Project in Arlington, Va., shares those fears.
``Anyone who's spent an hour on the Internet knows the potential for things to go wrong,'' she said.
``I love the Internet. I'm on it nearly half my life. But having said that, I have real concerns about privacy on the Internet.''
Phillips cited potential problems such as hackers trying to crash the system, people trying to cast someone else's ballot, loss of voting privacy, and a lack of computer access in some communities that might skew results.
Additionally, Internet voting makes elections less of a community event, which may create a greater gap between citizens and their government and thereby lessen participation, she said.
Adler said the key to successful Internet voting is to give it as many protections as the popular absentee ballot.
His company requires a written signature before allowing someone to vote online, encrypts all transmissions to prevent them from being intercepted and operates backup network servers to avoid system crashes.
The company also stores all votes on CD-ROM and sends a confirmation message once a vote has been recorded.
``If you can't secure the ballot and make it private and secure the election, you don't have the Internet as a viable medium for voting,'' Adler said.
A lot could be riding on Arizona's experiment. California and Washington are considering similar Internet voting programs and other states are watching.
If Arizona succeeds, others are bound to follow, Phillips said.
``It will take one state stepping out and doing this, and all of the other states will be piling on.''


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