Michigan's Online Ballot Spurs New Strategies for Democrats

[maddezmom]

January 10, 2004
Michigan's Online Ballot Spurs New Strategies for Democrats
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

ETROIT, Jan. 7 — The virtual ballot box has arrived in Michigan. Democrats in this state are the only voters in the country who have the option of voting online in the presidential primaries this year.

Since New Year's Day, voters have been allowed to apply for ballots and vote by mail or Internet in advance of the Feb. 7 caucuses. Or, on Feb. 7, they can go to one of 576 caucus sites and vote the old-fashioned way. By Thursday night, 11,000 people had applied for ballots, three-fourths of them over the Internet, according to the Michigan Democratic Party. About 100 people had voted so far, 90 of them online.

Mark Brewer, executive chairman of the party, said he had promoted the Internet option as a way to make voting easier and increase turnout. "Polls show that this is very popular, particularly with young people, and they have one of the worst rates of participation," Mr. Brewer said. "If this helps them, that's terrific."

When Mr. Brewer proposed online voting last year, none of the candidates objected. But when Howard Dean started climbing in the polls, they had a change of heart, fearing that his Web-surfing followers would have an inherent advantage.

Seven of the nine candidates — all but Dr. Dean and Gen. Wesley K. Clark — joined a challenge to the process initiated by Joel Ferguson, a Lansing businessman and member of the Democratic National Committee. Their brief, filed with the national committee, which oversees the rules for states, said that major security problems had not been resolved and that online voting discriminated against low-income blacks and Hispanics, less likely than whites to be computer-literate ~snip~

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/10/politics/campaigns/10MICH.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=

[FrenchieCat]

1. Very, very interesting....

Thanks for that info.

[maddezmom]

2. no prob ;) n/t

[patricia92243]

3. I don't see how it could be discrimination to anybody-people can still vote

the old-fashioned way.

I wish my state (NC) had that. My only question would be the security of it. Also, would the results be given out - this would be serious because it would make an influence on how people voted and how candidates would run.