Casting Ballot From Abroad Is No Sure Bet

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Over the last six years, the Defense Department has spent more than $30 million trying to find an efficient way for American soldiers and civilians living abroad to vote in elections back home.

But with the presidential primaries approaching, the Pentagon’s system, which is Web-based, remains slow, confusing and plagued with security and privacy problems. And that has left many of the five million Americans overseas uncertain that their vote will be counted.

Fewer than 20 local election officials in the United States have said they want to use the military’s Web system in the coming election. Just 63 voters used it in the 2006 election to request and return ballots over the Internet, according to a Defense Department study.

Civilians are not given access to the system, even though the Defense Department is responsible for assisting all overseas voters. Security experts and Congressional auditors say the system is vulnerable to undetectable vote tampering and hacking. The Election Assistance Commission, which is responsible for creating guidelines to enable secure Internet voting, is years away from doing so.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/washington/13overseas.html?hp