Would E-Voting Help Avoid Cliffhangers?

The U.S. presidential election cliffhanger wouldn't be half as suspenseful if it were for electronic voting technology, say European experts on "e-voting" who are closely watching the U.S. vote.

All eyes were on the state of Florida on Wednesday, where a ballot recount could decide the election for either George W. Bush or Al Gore by a razor-thin margin.

More than once after the polls closed Tuesday, news media were forced to change their predictions about the state's result: First they said Gore was ahead, then Bush, and then they resorted to calling the election still undecided.

Much of that uncertainty was caused because only some precincts in Florida use electronic vote-counting technology, says Alex Folkes, press and campaigns officer for the U.K. Commission on Electoral Reform.

"It's a lot more of the richer precincts that have it. This is why, especially in Florida, you've got the more Bush-friendly precincts reporting first--they can just push the switch and get the votes out. But the bigger, poorer precincts were by and large reporting later. That's why Gore started pulling back ahead. More of the hand-counted ballots started coming in."

"Of course you would have 100 percent accuracy with electronic voting. That would prevent the necessity of a recount," says Hans van Wijk, who markets electronic voting systems for the Dutch company Nedap. In the Netherlands, some 80 percent of precincts use e-voting, he says.

"Mechanical counting is not very accurate, so they need recounts. And then there's a lot of voting done on paper and then put through a scanner--you also have a rather high inaccuracy. And then of course there are absentee votes by mail, which gives doubtful results as well, because in filling in a paper somebody can put his vote a little bit beside the line, and everybody is wondering if it's a valid vote or not."

Retaining Accuracy Amid Speed

Speed must always take a back seat to accuracy when it comes to electronic voting, says Conor Falvey of the Irish Department of Environment and Local Government. The department is examining various voting systems for a trial run in the next general elections, probably in 2002.

"You can be sure that if the Irish government are going to commit to running a pilot project, they will want to be as sure as they can humanly be that the system is secure and will deliver a valid result," Falvey says.

But Irish electronic security company Baltimore Technologies says reliability is no problem. "Online voting would not only dramatically reduce the count time, but also ensure a more reliable initial result," says Evanna Kearins, spokesperson. She adds that online voting will help older, ill, and disabled voters to take part in the polls.

For now, though, electronic voting technology is still a question of updating the equipment used at polling places. Voting via the Internet is still a long way off, Folkes says. Questions of security and hacking need to be answered, as well as issues of voter integrity. (See "Net Voting Leaves Alaskans Cold."

"Who is actually casting the vote? It's one thing to issue code numbers or code words, but the apathetic can give them away or sell them, and we can't allow this. The other issue is pressure: It may be me casting my vote, but who is standing behind me? In a regular election, no one is allowed into the voting booth with you," Folkes says. (See "E-Voting Steps Closer.")