Fw: Online Registration and Voting Experiment to Be Launched

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Milspec elections.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Press Service" <afisnews_sender at DTIC.MIL>
To: <DEFENSE-PRESS-SERVICE-L at DTIC.MIL>
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 11:43 AM
Subject: Online Registration and Voting Experiment to Be Launched


> By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample
> American Forces Press Service
>
> WASHINGTON, June 16, 2003  A DoD voting experiment in the 2000
presidential
> elections that allowed military and overseas voters to cast their ballots
> through the Internet will be expanded in 2004.
>
> Beginning this fall, the Federal Voting Assistance Program hopes to get as
many
> as 100,000 military personnel  stateside and overseas  their eligible
> dependents and U.S. citizens living outside the United States to take part
in
> the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, said Polli
Brunelli,
> the program director. SERVE covers only those U.S. citizens who fall under
the
> Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
>
> Mandated by Congress, the project eligible voters from participating
project
> states will be able to register and vote electronically via any
Windows-based
> personal computer with Internet access from anywhere in world, Brunelli
said.
>
> In the 2000 experiment, 84 citizens located in 21 states and 11 countries
voted
> in jurisdictions in South Carolina, Texas, Florida, and Utah, proving the
> theory that online voting could work for voters wherever they lived,
Brunelli
> said.
>
> "We conducted a small 'proof of concept' experiment for the 2000
presidential
> election, and it was very successful. Now we are conducting another
electronic
> voting project. Congress wants it to be large enough to be statistically
> relevant. This will allow us to make supportable recommendations to the
> Congress on the future of Internet voting for UOCAVA citizens," she said.
>
> Brunelli noted that 10 states are interested in participating in the 2004
SERVE
> project: Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Minnesota, North Carolina, South
Carolina,
> Utah, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington.
>
> "We're looking for volunteer voters to participate in the project," she
> explained, "and we have a Web site where interested voters can see if
their
> voting jurisdiction is participating in the project. Beginning later this
year,
> the voter can sign up, then register and be able to vote in the 2004
> elections."
>
> According to Brunelli, local and state election officials will use the
SERVE
> system to receive voter registration applications, provide ballots to
voters
> and accept voted ballots.
>
> Brunelli said security during the registration and ballot process is a
primary
> concern. SERVE will utilize digital signatures for registration and ballot
> encryption as part of the security features.
>
> "People are concerned about Internet security. We've looked at the threats
that
> could happen to this type of system, and we've developed mitigating
measures to
> guard against those threats," she said.
>
> Brunelli said that not every county in states participating in the
experiment
> will be part of SERVE. She said voters can find a list of participating
> jurisdictions at the SERVE Web site. However, she added that those
counties
> that do participate will include the "full ballot" for that election -- 
local,
> state and federal.
>
> The experiment's official Web site can be found at www.serveusa.gov
[http://www.serveusa.gov]. For more information on
> SERVE or the Federal Voting Assistance Program, go to www.fvap.gov
[http://www.fvap.gov].
>
> _______________________________________________________
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>
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