County may try online voting

By Grace Shim
Iowa City Press-Citizen, Sept. 29, 1999

Johnson County voters might be able to participate in a mock vote on the Internet after casting their real votes in the Nov. 2 general election as part of a pilot project initiated by Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver.

Vote Here Now, a Seattle-based Internet firm developing technology for voting via the Web, would provide services. The mock vote would not affect the election process.

Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett said he has sent letters to 11 Johnson

County mayors and city councils requesting input about participation.

The project would include a minimum of 10 precincts statewide and possibly five in Johnson County, depending on facilities and Internet access.

"This is a serious effort by a provider of voting services over the Internet that can do it in a safe and secure way," Slockett said. "This will be opportunity for volunteers to participate and vote in a manner that we may well be using in the future."

Rural Johnson County resident Marianne Milkman is a registered voter and votes in every election. She said she is opposed to voting on the Internet, "I have already found that voting is becoming very isolated," she said. "It would isolate people even more."

"I think that it's important for people to go to the voting place to talk with people there. It's a social thing. That's how people realize they are doing this together, and that their vote really counts."

Iowa City resident Carol Spaziani said she might be willing to try it, She said that the experiment sounds like a wonderful idea, as long as the bugs are worked out before Internet voting is used universally.

"It might be open for voter fraud, but it would interesting," Spaziani said. "It would certainly encourage more people to vote, but some people do not have that kind of equipment at home.

"They need to maintain some central voting place."

Slockett said Vote Here Now has installed an elaborate security system.

"I think it's an exciting addition to voting because of the convenience and accessibility of it," he said. "Theoretically, it makes voting available 24 hours a day."