[Engineering Feature]
The Ballot Is Open On Electronic Voting
E-voting will play a key role in the upcoming U.S. national election, despite ongoing charges that electronic voting machines are rife with security flaws and may be susceptible to EMI.
Lawmakers in at least 14 states that use DREs are considering introducing legislation requiring voter-verified paper audits (Fig. 2). At the federal level, Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) last year introduced the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (H.R. 2239.IH), which would require a voter-verified paper record for use in manual audits of DREs.
U.S. military personnel will have their own system of e-voting this year, which is also not without controversy. They can vote by faxing or e-mailing their ballots, but only after they waive their right to a secret ballot. Several independent sources have questioned the system, called the Electronic Transmission Service, and the choice of the company assigned to manage it, Omega Technologies. Omega's chief executive, Patricia Williams, has donated several thousand dollars to the National Republican Congressional Committee and serves on the committee's Business Advisory Council.
As of early September, the U.S. Department of Defense was withholding information about the service. Some editorials have criticized the service, which also was used in the 2000 and 2002 elections. Omega didn't handle the military ballots in those elections, but the Pentagon won't say who did.
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