Panelist predicts widespread e-voting; audience expresses concern

By Cheryl Arvidson
The Freedom Forum Online

08.14.00

Printer-friendly page

Mike McCurry

LOS ANGELES — Joseph Mohen, the head of an Internet company that conducted the first statewide online primary election in U.S. history earlier this year, predicted yesterday that the nation would be "e-voting" within five years, substantially raising turnout among minority and low-income groups.

But he immediately encountered skepticism and concern from several audience members who said they feared that lack of security would increase the incidents of election fraud and make the system more vulnerable to vote-buying.

The panel discussion, "Cyber Political Revolution — 2000 and Beyond," was conducted here on the eve of the Democratic National Convention that runs today through Aug. 17. Co-sponsored by The Freedom Forum and FreedomChannel.com, the panel was similar to one held in Philadelphia in advance of the Republican convention.

Mohen's company, election.com, conducted the Internet voting in Arizona's Democratic presidential primary earlier this year. He said the system that was implemented in Arizona increased the turnout by 600% among African-American voters, 800% among Latinos and more than 500% among Native Americans. Mohen said those statistics show that concerns over a so-called "digital divide" — differences in computer literacy based on income levels — can be overcome if proper attention is given to making polling places highly accessible.

He also was questioned pointedly about how secure the system of voting was and how in a system of electronic voting, a person could be sure that his or her wasn't stolen by someone intent on e-stuffing the ballot box.

"The (security) method is different based on the election and the country, the information we have available on that voter and so on," replied Mohen, whose company expects to conduct some 200 elections around the world for public and private organizations this year.

For example, in Arizona, Democratic voters identified themselves in a two-tier system, using both a pin number provided to them by the party and some personal information such as birth date or the final four digits of a Social Security number — "something you were given combined with something you have," he said.

Mohen predicted that within three years, the most common verification system for online voting would be a "digital signature," which he said had proven to be a secure and reliable identifier in commercial applications. The digital signature is not that common now, Mohen said, because it is not supported by either Microsoft Word or Microsoft Office, "but that will change next year."

"As the average person realizes that security over the Internet can work, a trust is going to be formed," Mohen said. "The people are going to make it (e-voting) happen, certainly in the next five years."

Although several of the questioners expressed concern about an increase in vote-buying and voter fraud, Mohen said it was important for people to realize that the current system is not totally secure.

"This country's a long way from eliminating all ballot stuffing and voter fraud," he said. "The existing system is far from perfect."

He said electronic voting, if implemented well, may actually "give us the potential to eliminate a lot of voter fraud, eliminate a lot of deadwood from voter registration lists" and make other improvements that will actually "raise the bar" on election security.

Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings, a company focused on emerging information technologies, also cautioned the audience not to get so concerned about ballot-box security that they fail to recognize the benefits of electronic voting.

"We're paying way too much attention to that," Dyson said. "It's like saying marriage is only about sex. ... Government and politics is about making decisions richly; it's not just about voting.

"I'm not concerned about security" so much as "about the focus on the transaction as opposed to democracy itself," Dyson said.

Another questioner said he worried that, given the low voter turnout and apparent fall-off of interest in politics among the American people, e-voting could end up attracting a number of individuals who would vote on a whim or base their votes on some tidbit that caught their attention rather than solid information.

Mike McCurry, who was President Clinton's White House press secretary from 1995 to 1998 and now heads Public Strategies, a Washington public relations and consulting firm, said the questioner's description of the apolitical nature of the American voter was "the reality today." He agreed that in all probability, fewer than 50% of eligible voters would cast a ballot in the fall presidential election.

But McCurry said he considered that "a comment more on the quality of political discourse" than on the voting population itself. He said the growing presence of the Internet in American society affords both journalists and politicians an opportunity to do their jobs better. In doing so, he said, they might raise the level of discussion and education and get more people involved in electoral politics.

"The Internet is going to reinvent journalists," McCurry said.

"We need better, richer, deeper content" on the Internet, he said, and that may stimulate people to go out and get additional information. McCurry said he is convinced people would read more "if a serious effort were made to get them more content."