E-Voting

E-voting stands for electronic voting. It refers to the process of casting an electronic ballot and generally encompasses a wide range of electronic technology, including telephones, cable, and computers. Internet voting, or I-voting, refers more specifically to the process of casting an electronic ballot that is transmitted to election officials via the Internet.

Interest in electronic voting increased following the dramatic events of Election Day 2000 when concerns over the integrity of the U.S. electoral system arose from the uncertainty over whom had won the presidential election. Over a month passed before Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore conceded the election to Republican George W. Bush. During that month, the Florida recount of the presidential vote brought to the fore the untidy reality of punch card voting involving hanging, dimpled, and pregnant chads that made it difficult to determine with certainty for whom a ballot had been cast. In 2002, the Help America Vote Act was passed by Congress to provide funds to replace vintage voting systems (i.e., punch card systems). The law authorized Congress to make more than $3 billion available to state and federal agencies to improve election systems.

Elderly voters cast their ballots on the new touch-screen electronic voting machines in the Century Village retirement community in Palm Beach County, November 2, 2004. Palm Beach County was one of the centers of controversy in Florida during the 2000 election.

Source: Getty Images.

Many states rushed to reform their voting systems by adopting various forms of electronic voting machines as a replacement to traditional punch card systems. During the 2006 general election when many of these new voting systems were implemented, criticisms of these systems arose. Possible problems with e-voting systems include software programming errors, machines freezing, new forms of human errors, and attacks made by hackers. To date, it is unclear whether these systems merit suspicion or whether many of the problems associated with e-voting stem from poll workers insufficiently trained with the new equipment and voter unfamiliarity with machines. For example, in Florida's 13th Congressional District in the November 2006 election, 18,000 votes supposedly went missing. It is unclear whether people did not vote or whether the touch-screen systems did not record the votes. The missing votes could have been consequential, as the Republican candidate won the election with only 368 more votes than his Democratic opponent.

The four major companies providing electronic voting systems are Diebold, Election Systems & Software, Hart InterCivic, and Sequoia Voting Systems. Voting software is considered proprietary and therefore citizens cannot check to see if the machines are working correctly, placing trust in the companies that have designed the systems.

Voting practices are determined by state and local jurisdictions, although some people are calling for uniform federal standards. Some states do not require paper records to verify vote counts made from electronic machines (voter-verified paper audit trails, or VVPAT). A little less than half, or 22, states use systems with VVPAT. Even with paper audit trails [Page 225]in place, it is possible that difficulties will emerge due to problems such as paper jams from printers, which could lead to undercounts of electronic votes.

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