Cyberballots for next year’s White House race
Web posted at: 7/13/2003 3:8:43
Source ::: AP
WASHINGTON: Imagine casting a vote for president from a cybercafe in Thailand, an aircraft carrier in the Gulf or a laptop computer at home.
Thousands of people serving in the military and Americans living abroad will have that option next year in the nation’s most extensive Internet voting experiment, viewed by some as a step toward elections in cyberspace.
The Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, which began as a tiny demonstration project in the 2000 general election and involved just 84 voters, could give 100,000 voters the chance to cast absentee ballots online in next year’s presidential primaries and general election.
The Pentagon-run programme will be limited to eligible voters whose homes in the United States are in South Carolina and Hawaii, as well as residents in a handful of counties in Arkansas, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington.
“Internet voting takes just seconds instead of weeks if you were to put that ballot in the mail and send it off,” said Polli Brunelli, director of the Pentagon’s Federal Voting Assistance Programme. “What we’re trying to do is make sure that we have an alternative out there for those people who are unable to vote by mail.” (snip/....)
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