Explain this to me about Michigan internet voting.

[madfloridian]

This article makes it sound like only the Democrats voted via internet in the Michigan February primaries. What about the Republican primary? And will they also vote via internet in November? And why won't they give out information?

http://www.internetweek.com/allStories/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=49900867

LANSING, Mich. (AP) --" After nearly 50,000 Michigan Democrats cast ballots over the Internet in February, academics eagerly sought election data that would help them determine what types of people voted online. But scholars around the country complain that they haven't been able to get statistics from the Feb. 7 caucus.

The delay could stall important research, they say, on voting technologies and on boosting participation in U.S. elections - for example, by studying whether Internet voting could help such historically disenfranchised groups as overseas military personnel and citizens who don't speak English well."

SNIP.."Researchers and civil rights experts say Michigan's Democratic Party is merely one of a number of organizations that are stingy with voting data - even though computerized balloting systems and registration databases make such information relatively easy to share.

"The quantity and quality of data we get on elections is highly variable and highly inconsistent, and it makes it very difficult for us as social scientists to study what happened," said R. Michael Alvarez, a political science professor at the California Institute of Technology. "It also makes it difficult for the public to have confidence in the integrity of the numbers."

[Ruby Romaine]

1. We had a caucus, not a primary. The Democratic Party paid for it.

You could vote on the web, by mail or in person. We don't register by party in Michigan & anyone can vote in the caucus.

I don't think the republicans had a primary for president, but if they had, it would have been run like a real election.
In 2000, McCain beat Bush in the republican primary.
In my area we use optical scanners.

[Lefty48197]

2. There won't be any internet voting in Michigan in November

You still need a reason to get an absentee ballot here.

[ajacobson]

3. Repub primary was cancelled

no contest so they cancelled it.