Online Voting Unveiled

Pilot project in county fights apathy

By Grace Shim
The Press-Citizen
10/21/1999

Secretary of State Chet Culver is turning to the Internet to combat low voter turnout at the polls.

At a Wednesday press conference, Culver appeared with Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett to present a new project that could lead to voters pointing and clicking their way through the democratic process.

Some Johnson County voters will be able to participate in a pilot project to test the effectiveness of an online voting software package. They will be able to take part after casting their real vote on the Nov. 2 election at the North Liberty Community Center and at the Grant Wood Area Education Center in Coralville.

The online results for the municipal election will be non-binding, but some state and county officials hope that eventually online voting will help increase voters.

"As a former high school government and history teacher, I am concerned about apathy," Culver said. "Among the 18- to 24- year-olds, voting, in particular, is very poor. Only 15 percent vote in that group."

The Internet voting study is on a voluntary basis, and has been done in Washington and Virginia previously. By 2000, the study will be done in six states.

Culver said he was interested in moving online voting on a statewide basis.

Vanessa Keitges, product marketing manager of VoteHere.net, a Kirkland, Wash.-based data security company that is conducting the test, said that the online poll site system is secure.

The system only responds to the computers that are hooked up to do the voting, not outside computers, and the privacy of a vote is kept through data encryption.

"The ballot is just a form to check yes, no or skip the issue," she said. "You just need a mouse to do that."

Eighty percent of participants in past Internet studies said they were interested in voting on the Internet, Keitges said. This includes voters from various demographics in Washington state.

Slockett said that online voting would give individuals more freedom in how they want to vote.

"One criticism I've seen is not everyone has a computer. Well, does everyone have a voting machine?" he asked. Slockett noted that people can access computers at work, the library or the university.

In addition to the convenience of voting at more locations, there are possible cost savings with Internet voting, Keitges said. She said the state or county does not have to spend money printing ballots and would save on storage costs.