Imagine logging into a computer terminal – perhaps your ownpersonal computer– and , with a match of spry clicks , do your Constitutional right to roll your vote in a federal election . Will sidestepping the nuisances of discover the correct polling positioning and standing in production line for hour growth elector participation ? How close are we to seeing such a system in position ?
Voting via the net is just one cast ofelectronic voting(e - voting ) . broadly speaking utter , e - ballot denote to both the electronic means of casting a voter turnout and the electronic agency of tabularize votes . Using this definition , many balloting method presently in use in the United States already qualify . Punch card and optic scan cards are table using electronic means , for example , and they have been in exercise for decennium .
Recent applications that fall under this definition includeDirect Recording Electronic ( DRE)systems and ballot via the net . Most people think of DRE scheme when talking about electronic voting , as these electronic system are the first with which the general populace has interact . Not coincidently , these raw scheme are also the case of a lot of critique and scrutiny .
In this clause , we will examine how elections are administered , the various methods of electronic vote and advantage and business organisation link to each method . We ’ll also test how electronic system may be used in future election .
To realize the role balloting systems play in the election process of the United States , we take a flying primer on election administration . private states oversee election – even the Union ones . The understanding for this decentralized approach is primarily due to scale of measurement . accord toElection Data Services , there are over 170,000,000 registered voters in the United States . Imagine coordinate , help and tabulating votes for that many people . A centralized vote organization is not a realistic choice once you see the size of the labor .
For a presidential election , you would go to your local polling facility during polling hour . There a local election official or volunteer would verify that you are a registered elector and you would vote . Once the poll close up , an election official would assemble the ballots and transport them to a centralized tabular matter website . Here , official would calculate the right to vote and then report the results . elector from your nation would later on spue their vote for one of the presidential candidates . unremarkably an voter will vote for whichever campaigner receive the most votes in the voter ’s state . However , they are not obligated to vote along the same melodic line as the popular vote . checker outHow the Electoral College Worksto pick up more .
In 2002 , Congress passed the Help America Vote Act ( HAVA ) . This legislation has three primary goals :
States received a total of $ 3.9 billion dollar sign , with the amount pay to each land determined by the sizing of its ballot - age universe . Many states used the funding to advance old voting scheme .
In the next plane section , we will look at the two eccentric of electronic balloting systems : newspaper - based and verbatim - transcription .
E-voting Systems
With a paper - based system , the electronic constituent is unremarkably atabulation gimmick . This means that votes are counted on an electronic organization , which is much fast than a manual count . Some ballot printing process systems resemble DRE organisation . Voters use a touchscreen or similar electronic machine to make their choices . When the voter submits his suffrage , a printer attached to the gadget produces a physical paper ballot . An election official or volunteer takes all the theme ballot produced to a centralised fix for counting once the poll parrot close . A freestanding electronic gimmick optically scans these ballots and tabulates the issue .
One of the reward of a paper - base organization is that the ballot is physically represented by a objet d’art of report . This tangibility reassure voters that their choices are being reckon . Still , a physical ballot does not ensure a voter turnout will be correctly counted . Many factor can contribute to a misapply ballot . Holes in punch scorecard may not be properly coordinate or to the full punched , result in a “ hanging chad , ” made notorious in the 2000 election in Florida . On optical scan cards , stray marks or incomplete marking may be misconstrue when tabulated . Printers that mark optical scan card can run low on toner , lead in cards with uncomplete or unreadable marks . It may also be potential for a voter to vote for two or more candidates for a single position , know as overvoting ; these selections are not weigh by tabular matter equipment .
Physical voting can be lose or destroyed before tabulation . Still , it is far more difficult to lose paper ballots than it is to fall back an nonphysical electronic record . In the next section we will examine Direct Recording Electronic organization , some of which record ballot alone on just such an intangible book .
Direct Recording Electronic Systems
A Direct Recording Electronic System is essentially a information processing system . Voters take in voting on a CRT screen and make choices using an input machine such as a bank of button or a touchscreen . Some DRE systems also employ a card swipe or cartridge system that must be activated before a balloting can be drop . vote are stored on a memory circuit board , thickset record or other retentivity gadget . Election officials transport these memory devices to a centralized emplacement for tabular matter , just as they would with paper - based balloting . Some machines have the capability to circularise resultant role over a modem - to - modem argument , though due to business about data security , these results are ordinarily deemed unofficial until they can be verified by tabulating the results lay in on the memory devices . Many DRE machine also have the mental ability to print a report record of ballot cast . Some , however , have no comparable paper track .
A DRE organization can have major advantage over paper - based systems , assuming it is dependable and reliable ( more on that after ) . Because ballots are displayed electronically , there are no limitations on a ballot ’s visual aspect . software engineer can create ballot in any language . They can design big photographic print layout for elector with poor eyesight or even show and comprise audio files for blind elector . Election officials do not need to estimate how many voting to order for each possibleness ; any special format could be called up as situations arise .
Since votes are record on a retentiveness gadget , tabulation takes less time . There are no paper ballots to scan , so there ’s less risk of mechanical error . While human computer error is still a agent and there is always a business organisation about software bug ; in an ideal organization , tabulation is instant with no need for recounts .
In the next few sections , we will look at some of the concerns critics have regarding DRE systems .
Voter Fraud, Networking and Operational Transparency
Critics point out some major concern about DRE system . The braggart one is the potential for voter fraud . proponent of DRE systems argue that it would take gifted individuals with very specialized knowledge to compromise a system . Due to this storey of expertise , very few people would be capable of perpetrate fraud . DRE systems are designed as self - contained units where the electronic computer arrangement is locked away from easy access . This entail that the only clip anyone has access to the computer element would be when the organisation is in a high-pitched security expanse such as a computer storage facility or within the production area of the vendor ’s shop . critic argue that the possible action of fraud on a monumental scurf is still present under the right circumstances ( for exemplar , a programmer who has accepted bribe ) and that pseudo is potentially more difficult to notice when using electronic voting versus newspaper ballots .
Election functionary and DRE system vendors have to regard many factors , let in elector anonymity . A voter ’s voting can not be linked back to a specific voter without compromise confidentiality . Paper - found ballots or a DRE organisation that father a report track produce a forcible record of each elector ’s choices . Without this paper lead , the only record produced is electronic . Critics of paperless systems argue that a programmer could spay the electronic phonograph record of balloting redact and , because right to vote can not be tie back to a special elector for verification , detection of vote tampering could be impossible .
More than a dozen trafficker produce the DRE systems now in use . Each vender educate ( or partners with another business firm to develop ) unique package to display , record and tabularise elector ballots . nation are not bound to a single seller and may buy system from multiple sources . Critics argue that connecting unlike systems together could compromise the security of the meshing of machines . seller do not design their organisation to interact seamlessly with other marketer ’ systems , so connecting two very different systems may make either or both behave in unintended ways .
Another major concern istransparency . Transparency relate to a full and accurate verbal description of how the arrangement works . One way of life of achieving transparency would be to share thesource codeused in display and capture ballots with computing machine scientists . Source code is the programming language that is readable by people but not by computers – estimator readobject codification . By examining the germ codification , critic indicate , reckoner scientists could decide that the programme perform the intended undertaking without erroneous belief . trafficker , however , consider their source code to be proprietary knowledge . They are unwilling to share this entropy for fear competitors could use it .
Proponents of DRE system are nimble to point out that by releasing author code , seller could expose vulnerabilities of their organisation that others might tap , make such system less safe rather than more . Critics reason that without deliberate examination of the code , voters can not be sure that the system of rules is doing what it is supposed to do in the first place . fake , they say , could originate with the vendors either on purpose or through a programming mistake , and votes could be misattributed without chance of catching .
Fraud is a major care with e - ballot . fall into place here to learn how pretender in e - voting is similar to fraud inonline resume .
Impartiality, Auditing Results and Cost
foil and fraud are both factors in another concern critics have of DRE organisation : impartiality . DRE systems are bring forth by secret caller , and these companies have not always been seen as politically neutral . Critics question if it is impertinent to entrust public election to individual company that have a vested interestingness in a fussy political party ’s victory in the election .
Auditing is another important circumstance in the use of DRE systems . HAVA require that all voting systems are auditable , both for recounts and to reassert that the system is working properly . This is an ongoing struggle for estimator scientists and vendors . It is passing unmanageable to produce an auditing appendage that still preserves the anonymity of voter . Some experts argue for a Voter Verified Paper Trail ( VVPT ) , where both the machine ’s memory machine and a strong-arm paper lead record each ballot . Each voter could then equate the paper trail to the resultant role screen on the DRE monitor to avow his suffrage was reckon the right way . Currently , 27 states have legislation or regulations requiring a paper trail . Out of the sleep , Arkansas has amalgamate legislation that demand some jurisdiction to have paper trails but does not require the same of other jurisdiction . Twelve states have proposed legislation that has not yet been enacted , and 10 states have no proposed legislation on the subject .
Some critic of DRE systems argue that without a newspaper trail , a DRE system is unexplainable . They say that if an audit can not find that the voting recorded are the ballots voters really upchuck , then the upshot of such an election can not be verified . Others debate that paper trail alone are of no use . A DRE System could display and print a voter ’s choice with no apparent errors and still electronically record the vote improperly on its computer storage gadget . Their solutions often focus on prolonged testing and certification of voting systems to fix in deliberate feigning whether or not the voting system is accurately capturing suffrage .
Finally , DRE systems be more than other organization presently in use . What ’s more , the on-going price of maintaining DRE systems are unknown at this full stop . As with computer systems , adjustments will involve to be made to any DRE to fix bugs or make raise . While state received money due to HAVA in 2002 , that was a one - meter Cary Grant . alimony costs are left to the states . If trafficker go out of business or consolidate , that may affect the cost of maintaining hardware and software .
In the next segment , we ’ll wait at cyberspace - found systems .
Voting Over the Internet
In 2000 , the Federal Voting Assistance Program ( FVAP ) comport a pilot program called vote Over the Internet ( VOI ) to see if votes could be reliably and securely cast using theInternet . The program was modest in size – 84 volunteers in 21 states and 11 area used the system to cast absentee ballot for the November 7 , 2000 election . Select counties in South Carolina , Florida , Texas and Utah participated . The VOI initiative pit the first time in the United States that ballots redact using the Internet counted in federal , Department of State and local election result . To assure the volunteers that their votes would be matter in the case of a failed experimentation , each voluntary was also provide to shed a traditional paper - base absentee ballot .
FVAP designed the system to mime base absentee ballots . They did not design the system to tabulate vote . Each Tennessean received a CD that had a browser app plug - in design to display and conduct ballots to the FVAP waiter . The organisation required that volunteers use Netscape Navigator 4.05 or high with strongencryption . The Department of Defense ( DOD ) supervise a digital enfranchisement program to authenticate voter identity . Once a voter transmitted a ballot , the DOD would deactivate his documentation to keep him from voting again .
Encrypted ballots were transmitted over the net to the FVAP server . Only the intended terminus of the voting remained unencrypted . The server was in a secure location with very special entree and an continuous superpower provision . Two intrusion detection system were establish to supervise any attempts at fraudulent activity .
Local Election Officials ( LEOs ) used pole at their local sites to access an LEO waiter . This server connect to the FVAP server , which transmitted the encrypted ballots address to that LEO site over the Internet . Once the ballots make it , a data processor at the LEO web site decode them and printers get paper transcript . LEO volunteer transcribed the printed result onto paper - based absentee voting .
At the decision of the experiment , FVAP official declared the pilot film plan a winner . They concluded that remote voting on a small scale with miserly controls was an acceptable alternative to vomit a traditional absentee vote . They also mark that this was an experimentation involving less than 100 player ; implementing a scheme to allow yard or million of citizen to vote using the Internet would require more thought .
The Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment
After the success of VOI , Congress quest that the DOD conduct a larger net - found voting program . In 2001 the DOD start to design the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment ( SERVE ) . The DOD estimated that 100,000 citizens would enter in the experiment , and their right to vote would be counted in both the primaries and the general election of 2004 . If the experiment were hold a achiever , cyberspace voting would be extended to all abroad military personnel and other citizens .
In early 2004 , the DOD canceled the experimentation due to concern about security progeny , end the computer program before the implementation phase . Specific concerns included voter namelessness being compromise orhackersintercepting and manipulating vote sent over the Internet . Congress has requested the DOD to seek the experiment again once the Election Assistance Commission ( established by HAVA ) create new guidelines for absentee ballot and enrollment in 2007 .
The VOI and SERVE platform were both designed to put up greater approachability to voters who are oversea or otherwise must retch absentee ballots . Such elector number in the hundreds of chiliad , and yet this universe makes up only a small percentage of the overall numeral of registered voters . net - base votes will have to fulfill skeptics with untroubled , reliable and repeatable instance of voter verification , vote display , ballot recording and vote transmission . It may be many years before we see the Internet used as a significant ballot system in the United States .
In the next section , we will see why public percept play such an important theatrical role in election administration .
The Psychology of Electronic Voting
The public must trust that elections are fairly behave in rules of order for a democratic government to be count legitimate . If the public perceives elections to be unjust , the foundation of the politics is dampen . Whether electronic voting systems are fair may not even matter ; it is the public percept that is all important . At the moment , the latest electronic ballot systems in usance ( peculiarly DRE organisation , which accord toElection Data Services , serve as the ballot equipment uncommitted for 38 percent of the nation ’s registered voters ) are receiving a great quite a little of examination and critique . Citizens , secret companies and elected officials are spend more time cautiously examining these systems and the implications of their use .
Though debate on the issue of due east - balloting has been and will continue to be passionate , most critics recognize that a move towards electronic voting systems is an inevitable step in the evolution of our voting process . Because our commonwealth depends upon the public conceive in comely elections , these systems must be shown to be as strong and dependable as other voting method .
That is likely much easy order than done . Reports of lose data , corrupted files , bribed officials , vendor partisanship , unsecured information and other scandals have been in the news several times since 2000 . While these written report likely create an unrealistic expectation of unreliability , they are logical causes for concern . It will be the responsibility of the states and vendor to determine the best means of make public trust .
Some of these methods will likely include more tight trial , measured discussion about the residue of proprietary info against the want for source codification validation , and discussions on the residue between voter anonymity and the pauperism for a reliable audited account system . While these are big issues , elections are by their very nature crucial to our government and way of life . Considering that , is any issue too big to address ?
For heaps more information on e - ballot and related subject , ensure out the links on the next page .
Lots More Information
Related HowStuffWorks Articles
More Great Links
generator
