Sparks fly in e-voting debate

[La_Serpiente]

Sparks fly in e-voting debate
Researchers face off over security issues

SEATTLE - Researchers argued the pros and cons of electronic voting this weekend with the fervor of candidates on the campaign trail — but agreed on at least one point: This year’s presidential balloting has the potential to suffer more glitches than the infamous 2000 election.

The e-voting debate has been simmering ever since the flaws in Florida's punch-card voting system brought the term "hanging chad" into the American political vocabulary. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent since then to upgrade voting systems, with much of that going to paperless e-voting systems. A study released last week by Election Data Services indicates that 50 million voters, 28 percent of the projected voting population, will use such e-voting systems in 2004 — more than double the number in 2000.

Meanwhile, computer security experts and activists have been sounding the alarm about the vulnerability of e-voting systems, warning that hackers could perpetrate wholesale fraud. The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which concluded Monday in Seattle, provided a rare opportunity for the top supporters and critics of e-voting to state their case in a scientific forum.

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Sparks fly in e-voting debate