Analysis: Pentagon E-Voting Plan Scrapped

The Internet's role in campaigns and elections continues to grow, but security snags continue to mar e-voting efforts. Amid a public outcry over security, the Pentagon said it would pull the plug on its plan to let U.S. citizens living abroad cast their votes online in the upcoming presidential election.

The news is an about-face for the Defense Department, which had virulently defended an expansion of its e-voting program, despite a recent report by computer security experts that called for it to be tanked because of the potential for security problems and hacker attacks that could change votes or taint information.

Seems the Pentagon brass finally listened to the criticism, mostly from four computer scientists who were part of a group that reviewed the merits — and pitfalls — of the test system, called the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment. The idea of e-voting is a good one in theory, but so is the shelving of this plan for now since the security holes experts identified could allow someone to monkey around with real votes — not exactly the foundation on which the United States was built.

"The cancellation of the system is the latest set back for Internet and electronic voting amid ongoing concerns over the security and reporting features of e-voting machines. The criticism has mounted to the point that the makers of e-voting machines have formed a lobbying group to take their case to Washington, D.C. The Defense Department hasn't indicated what the next step is for Internet voting, except that the United States is still interested," CNET's News.com reported.

The government's e-voting Web site, part of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, apparently hasn't caught wind of the cancellation order. It still bears the headline: "Vote Using the Internet In 2004!" The program was supposed to go live for the primaries this past Tuesday. It's worth noting that the announcement came from an anonymous official, The Associated Press reported, a sign that the Pentagon wants its backpedaling to be done with as much secrecy as the American citizen gets inside the voting booth. "The official, who requested anonymity, said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made the decision to scrap the system because Pentagon officials were not certain they could 'assure the legitimacy of votes that would be cast,'" The AP wrote.

The New York Times provides more details on where the stop order came from. "The decision was announced in a memorandum from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz to David S. C. Chu, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Paraphrasing the memorandum, a Department of Defense spokeswoman said: 'The department has decided not to use Serve in the November 2004 elections. We made this decision in view of the inability to ensure legitimacy of votes, thereby bringing into doubt the integrity of the election results.' The memorandum says efforts will continue to find ways to cast ballots electronically for Americans overseas and to use Serve for testing and development."

Don't discount the possibility that President Bush might want to do whatever he can to avoid mention of controversial votes this time around, especially after the, uh, uncertainties that marked Florida's vote-counting operation in 2000. More on the cancellation of the program: "The $22 million pilot project was intended to be used by about 100,000 voters from 50 counties in seven states. State election officials said they were told late Wednesday that it would not be used to count votes included in election results," The Washington Post reported. "Overseas voters will be able to cast Internet ballots as part of a test intended to learn more about online voting. But to cast an actual vote in the presidential election, they will have to fill out and return the traditional paper absentee ballots. The greatest security concern is the personal computer of the individual voter, said Paul W. Craft, an election official from Florida, one of the participating states. A virus or other hidden program in a voter's computer could monitor keystrokes and intercept — or change — votes. 'They decided they could not mitigate that risk sufficiently for the 2004 election. We would not have used it unless they addressed that risk,' he said."

The same article noted that the decision came after the report and a call to stop the program from the Republican and Democratic party groups for citizens living overseas.

The two groups banded together, likely spurred by the release of the scathing report, which listed a number of concerns including this particularly troubling contention about hacker attacks on the system: "Such attacks could occur on a large scale, and could be launched by anyone from a disaffected lone individual to a well-financed enemy agency outside the reach of U.S. law. These attacks could result in large-scale, selective voter disenfranchisement, and/or privacy violation, and/or vote buying and selling, and/or vote switching even to the extent of reversing the outcome of many elections at once, including the presidential election. With care in the design, some of the attacks could succeed and yet go completely undetected."

GovExec.com reported yesterday that a "Pentagon spokeswoman said that she could not comment on whether the report led directly to the cancellation decision. According to the spokeswoman, the Pentagon is not focused completely on the SERVE program. Defense officials are currently investigating other technology that would allow military personnel overseas to securely cast their votes online, the spokeswoman said." Stay tuned.

E-Vote Rocked

Security concerns are affecting states' e-voting efforts as well. California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley is trying to improve the security of e-voting machines after a separate report indicated the systems can be compromised. Shelley wants Diebold Election Systems, which makes e-voting machine software, "to turn over its software code so it could be evaluated by independent experts chosen by the state. Shelley also is requiring random state testing of all electronic voting systems on election day to ensure ballots are accurately recorded," The San Jose Mercury News reported. "One in four California voters, including those in Alameda County, are expected to cast ballots in next month's presidential primary on electronic voting systems made by Diebold Election Systems. Last week, computer scientists hired by the state of Maryland to hack its Diebold voting system announced they had successfully changed vote tallies on touch-screen voting machines, altered ballots and seized control of a central vote-counting computer ... The report, which was prepared by Raba Technologies for the Maryland legislature, comes on the heels of an audit of California Diebold systems conducted by Shelley's office in December. That study found Diebold had installed unapproved software in 17 California counties in violation of state law."

E-Vote Rolled

Michigan, however, has fully embraced e-voting for this weekend's caucus. "Anyone who requested to vote absentee received a paper ballot that could be mailed in; that ballot included directions and passwords to vote on the Internet. As of last Saturday's deadline, 123,000 people had requested the mail-or-Internet ballots, a huge leap for caucuses that had 20,000 voters four years ago," The Washington Post wrote. "We're holding the most accessible election ever in the United States — five weeks of voting by mail and five weeks of voting by Internet," Mark Brewer, the state party's executive chairman, told the paper. "Plus you can vote in person Saturday. We're taking the election to the voters."

In an opinion piece in today's Detroit News, George Weeks wrote: "Saturday's Democratic presidential caucus is a test not only of candidates. It also tests a process that will be watched by both parties and by election officials across the land: voting by Internet. By late Thursday, more people — 21,200 — already had voted by Internet than the 20,000 people who voted in Michigan's 2000 Democratic caucus." More from the article: "Arizona had Internet voting in 2000, but Michigan is the only state to use it this year in the nominating process. Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), has touted it as a process for the future that is being honed by Michigan Democrats. The DNC rejected a challenge by some Michigan Democrats — supported by Kerry and all other Democratic contenders except Dean and retired Gen. Wesley Clark — that Internet voting would disadvantage the poor and minorities who lack Internet access. ... The Internet also is being used to help voters determine their nearest caucus site. Information is available at www.publius.org and www.mi-democrats.com."