On Line Voting Benefits v Risks

Regarding the benefit – risk ratio of on line voting, the risks far out weigh the benefits.

Voting from Home
The primary benefit of on line voting touted by proponents is that individuals who otherwise could not get to the polls would have an opportunity to vote from within their own home or another convenient location. However, this benefit assumes…
*that these excluded persons have and can operate a computer,
*that they are able to pay for and access internet service,
*that they will have opportunity to cast their vote without coercion, and
*that the intended individual is indeed voting.

Persons negatively impacted would be the computer illiterate, the elderly, the poor, and the oppressed. Privacy for voting would be uninsurable at the point of entry. Individual identity would be more difficult to determine.

Ballot Box Tampering
The argument that electronic voting would eliminate “ambiguity associated with paper balloting” and the “risk of ballot box tampering” is outweighed by the technological problems of safeguarding the electronic process of casting an on line vote.

These problems include guarantees …
*that personal computers be virus and otherwise tamper free
*that the website be real versus spoof
*that the website be available, not overwhelmed or under an attack
*that personal privacy be respected,
*that the personal and IP addresses of individuals not be retained, and
*that a paper trail be made to ensure backup in case of computer failure or “clitch.”

Internet voting would be a potential target for illegal tampering on a huge scale, much larger than a ballot box scale.

Monetary Costs
Whether the costs of creating, installing, insuring, and making a verifiable paper record would be less expensive than casting an on line vote is dubious. I have no way of measuring the costs to either side. Voters would sustain the cost of access to computers and the internet. A system for receiving millions of votes would need to be created and kept. The thought that large amounts of technical equipment would be on standby for months at a time and be expected to start up without high costs is unreasonable. The equipment would also require safe storage and tight security.

If electronic voting becomes an option in a larger way than it already is, it should be offered only as one of several methods in which a vote may be cast. All persons should feel safe, free, private, and comfortable with voting for the individual of their choice ...and they must know for certainty that their vote has indeed been cast.