State efforts to let military and overseas voters cast ballots using the Internet have set off warnings from computer security experts that elections could be subject to cyberattacks.
The debate intensified after the District of Columbia tested an Internet voting system for possible use next month and invited computer scientists to try hacking into it. They did, without much trouble.
Arizona and West Virginia will allow military and overseas voters to use the Internet on Nov. 2 with systems the states claim are safe. More than 20 other states let those voters use e-mail, which some election security experts say is just as vulnerable. Congress has asked the Pentagon and the states to conduct pilot projects.
Computerized options for the nation’s 4 million to 5 million military and overseas voters have spread almost as fast as the use of touch-screen machines in the United States a decade ago. Although no fraud has been detected, the computer lines are fraught with danger.
“The nature of the Internet can be so insecure,” says Rokey Suleman, the D.C. director of elections who ordered up the test. “Right now, maybe it can’t be done. But we have to do projects to get us there.”
The debate over Internet voting focuses on members of the military and Americans living overseas who have had difficulty getting and returning ballots by Election Day. In 2008, only two-thirds of them returned their ballots on time, compared with 91 percent of absentee voters.
A law passed by Congress last year mandates that states send out absentee ballots to military voters and Americans abroad at least 45 days before an election and make electronic delivery of those ballots an option. It recommends pilot programs for returning voted ballots via the Internet, which is considered riskier.
‘We Have To Move Cautiously’
So far, two states and the District of…