Beyond BBV: Troops overseas to vote *over the Net*!!

[KamaAina]

Remember what a key role military absentee ballots played in Selection 2000... and that there are hundreds of thousands of troops overseas this go-round... :scared:

http://starbulletin.com/2004/01/25/news/index7.html

More than 600 Hawaii Army National Guard and Army reservists serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have the opportunity be among the first servicemembers to vote via the Internet for president in November....

Besides Hawaii, the other states participating are Arkansas, Florida :scared: , North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Washington. Stevenson cautioned that not all of the counties in the seven states are participating...

She said that a soldier here or overseas whose state and county are part of the system will be able to vote via any Windows-based computer....

Meg McLaughlin, president of Accenture eDemocracy Services, which is building the system, said a servicemember will use his or her current identification card to begin the registration process.

Well, that makes me feel much better, now that I know Accenture is behind this! After all, they're a spinoff of that reliable Big Six firm, Arthur Andersen! And it's not like Windows has ever been shown to have any security flaws or anything like that!</sarcasm>

Doubt they'll be able to steal (we would say "cock-a-roach") Hawai'i in a Presidential race, but watch Florida... again...

[sweetheart]

1. "The Economist" says: "good intentions, bad technology"

Heres a link if you have a paid subscription.

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=S%27%298%20%2BQQ7%
2A%21P%22%5C%0A

Here's the last paragraph of the article:


.
in one cast in Indiana, 5,352 voters somehow cast
144,000 votes. In virginia, machines subtracted
votes rather than adding them to a candidate's totals
in some cases.
.
.
It is hardly rocket science. But it is too
late to sort out the mess before November,
when perhaps 20% of the votes will be cast
using paperless touch-screen machines.
Worries over their reliability and security,
and the lack of a common standard, mean
the new machines may have made a Florida-like
fiasco more rather than less likely.
"We're going to have digital hanging chads,"
says Dr Mercuri

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. Four of their own...

advisors said that the system is CRAP! But the Pentagon is going ahead anyway...can you guess why?


http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,62012,00.html


WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government should abandon an Internet-voting system planned by the Pentagon because hackers could easily tamper with election results, several computer-science professors said Wednesday. But the Pentagon is standing by the system, which could get its first test Feb. 3 in South Carolina's primary election.

Military personnel and other U.S. citizens located overseas will be able to cast their ballots online for some primary and general elections this year under the Defense Department's Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, or SERVE, rather than casting absentee ballots by mail.

But their votes could be vulnerable to a range of cyberattacks that already have rocked banks, Internet providers and other businesses that operate online, said four researchers who serve on an advisory panel for the program.

[JetJaguar]

3. Will there be a caveat clause?

This "Election" is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Americans who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of America in general, nor the public as a whole. The "New Government" is not responsible for content, functionality or the opinions expressed therein.

[maggrwaggr]

4. gee, I wonder how they'll vote?

I'm sure the press will tout the astounding results of 91% of servicemen voting for Bush as proof that the soldiers are standing behind their president and believe in their mission!

Seig Heil!