Remote Electronic Voting: A Simple, Safe, and Accurate Voting System Es

Remote Electronic Voting A Simple, Safe, and Accurate Voting System Does it not take care obvious that the United States should be balloting everywhere the Internet by now? Considering all the vitally important monetary and information-related transactions that occur over the Internet every day, one would think this could and would concur happened already. However, Remote Electronic Voting, especially on a national scale, presents us with some possibly troubling implications and problems. These implications and problems, especially those concerning security, have prevented the U.S. from employing such Internet voting in a national election so far. Is such a system in our future? Many experts believe so. But as of yet, the risks seem to outweigh the rewards. Before going any farther, it is important to clarify the difference between Internet voting and Remote Electronic Voting. Internet voting already occurs in many places. It refers merely to vot ing from a computer that is under the control of election officials, usually in a specific precincts polling place. On the other hand, Remote Electronic Voting is the new prospect of voting over the Internet from a remote, unsupervised location (Alvarez 4, Rubin). This new prospect has genuine advantages but many likely drawbacks as well. The greatest advantage that Remote Electronic Voting could provide would be ease of voting. The weather, waiting in line, and being confused about where ones polling place is would no longer be issues. Also, Remote Electronic Voting would practically eliminate the need for absentee ballots, which ofttimes are not counted. In fact, in the 2000 and 1996 presidential elections, it is estimated that about 40% of oversea... ...r the fairness of the system. It is probably just as crucial that issues concerning the Digital Divide and coercion be resolved as issues concerning security. The last thing the U.S. should want is a simple , safe, accurate, and grossly unfair voting system. WORKS CITEDAlvarez, R. Michael, and Thad E. Hall. Point, Click, and Vote The Future of Internet Voting. Washington, D.C., Brookings governance Press, 2004.Hardy, Michael. Pentagon Nixes Internet Voting, Questions About Security Linger. 23 February, 2004. Federal Computer Week.com Online Magazine. http//www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0223/pol-pentagon-02-23-04.aspRubin, Aviel D. Security Considerations for Remote Electronic Voting over the Internet. Florham Park, NJ, A&T Labs Research, with Internet form _or_ system of government Institute e-voting workshop. Online. http//avirubin.com/e-voting.security.html