Internet Voting: An Alternative to Chads?

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A fingerprint and a computer could have avoided last November's election disaster in Florida--in theory if not in practice.

The technology exists. One implementation is called Itrust, and members of Congress recently got a demonstration. Using a real fingerprint to verify their identity, a person could vote online--even from home--trusting the system to avoid miscounting, identity fraud, and partial punching.

"Is it the ultimate solution? No, but it solves today's problem. It makes voting more convenient and accurate," says Grant Evans, executive vice president of Identix. Itrust was launched last July as a service to secure wireless and Internet transactions. Motorola was the first partner, and Aether Systems and VeriSign have since signed on. EDS has partnered with Identix only on the online voting product, which is an Itrust application.

Multiple Verification Offered

The company proposes applying Itrust to online voting so that American military personnel overseas can vote electronically instead of mailing ballots. It would be especially convenient for military use because the government already has fingerprint data on record, Evans notes.

Say you're in the military stationed in Saudi Arabia, he explains. If you have access to the Internet, you could call up the voting registration application program. It would ask for your social security number and then, to verify your identity, you would put your finger on a "reader" device to make sure your fingerprint matches with your fingerprint on government file. Once you're cleared through the system and you pick your candidates, you hit Send.

But before the vote is sent, Itrust would again make you verify your identity, to ensure it's still you voting. Then the technology separates the voting information from your personal identification so that the vote remains anonymous.

Online Only One Option

"I think [online voting] is one serious option, among many, as to how voting methods can be updated," says Representative David Price (D-North Carolina), who this week was named co-chair of a committee of Democrats who will examine election reform. "We have a very broad mandate to look at all methods. This is not simply a matter of a technical fix," he says.

Price's committee was formed to "investigate the flaws in our voting system and submit recommendations to Congress on how to fix the election process." Although the group has no timeframe for action, Price says he wants voting solutions in place for next year's elections.

"We're not talking about totally federalizing the system. We're looking at the state and local functions, and there should be flexibility in considering different states' systems," Price says. "But local divisions should not mean that we allow ballots so confusing that voters don't know whom they are voting for, or broken-down boxes. We should have a national standard and guidance."

Opposition Raised

Not everyone is so enthusiastic about Internet assistance for voting.

Any state that decides to take voting online is making a big mistake, says Curtis Gans, of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate.

"I am unalterably against online voting," Gans says. "We are not protected 100 percent against breakdowns, and even then there are hackers and viruses. Until we have 100 percent protection, we cannot move to online voting."

When officials seriously investigate the potential pitfalls of online voting, there is no way it will be implemented, Gans says.

"It's not like a voting box machine breaking down. Once you put things online you screw up the electoral process, because every problem affects the whole system, not just one precinct," he says. "The technology is just not there."

Evans agrees that Itrust technology is not 100 percent protected against hackers and viruses, "but it's better than what we had in the last election," he says.

"With any technology, once you release it people try to break it; we're doing that ourselves to keep updating and improving it. Technology reinvents itself all the time," Evans says.

More Tech in Our Lives

In fact, online voting is just a way of taking the technology we're already using in everyday life and applying it to something new, Evans says.

"It doesn't change the democratic process; everyone will always have a vote," Evans says. Because PCs will be even more widely available in the future, people could vote either in the polls or on the Web, Evans adds. What will change is accuracy. From a computer standpoint, you can only make one choice for a candidate, so Itrust eliminates multiple-candidate and questionable selections.

"I was impressed with the Identix technology, I think it represents a great leap forward in finding a solution to voting accuracy, especially in the military," says Representative Steven Rothman (D-New Jersey). "But ultimately Congress wouldn't and shouldn't dictate a specific technology to be used," he says.

Rothman has co-sponsored a bill with Representative Thomas Davis (R-Virginia) to establish an election commission to study voting procedures and administration, and to provide grants to modernize voting. He saw the technology presentation to members of Congress.

"I saw before me a half a dozen or more technologies designed to prevent the chaos of the Florida election," he says. "And I was pleased to see new technologies, but I assume it's just the tip of the iceberg of what's available to provide solutions for voting reform."