Operation Just Cause... ...for as long as it takes
Sent in by Veterans News and Information Services
By Paul Stone WASHINGTON It may be the wave of the future for
participating in the electoral process, and DoD is leading
the way.
DoD’s Federal Voting Assistance Program and five states
have begun a pilot project for the year 2000 presidential
election that will allow service members to cast their
absentee ballots over the Internet instead of through the
mail.
The program is primarily aimed at making it easier for
service members stationed away from their home states to
cast their ballots, according to Polly Brunelli, voting
program director.
“Our men and women are deployed to combat zones. They’re in
disaster areas. They’re also serving aboard surface vessels
and submarines, as well as in remote areas where mail
delivery is unpredictable,” Brunelli said. “So this
sometimes makes absentee voting particularly challenging.”
Indeed, she pointed out that a 1996 post-election survey
revealed approximately one-fourth of all military voters
said they did not vote in the elections because their
ballots did not arrive in time to be counted.
Approximately 350 volunteer service members scattered
throughout the world will take part in the project. The
five states that have agreed to participate are Florida,
Missouri, Texas, South Carolina and Utah. Later this year,
working with these states and the individual services, FVAP
will identify possible participants and offer them the
opportunity to take part. Registration will begin in
January 2000. The only requirements for service members are
that they are 18 or older, be registered voters in their
home states and that they have access to a personal
computer with Internet connection.
Brunelli said a key concern that will be tested in the
pilot project is voter confidentiality. DoD will provide
software to participants that will give them access to the
Pentagon’s public-key infrastructure; a system the military
uses to send encrypted messages worldwide.
She explained that all voting transactions would travel
through the secure “pipeline” to the local election
official in the voter’s home state and jurisdiction. The
voter’s ballot will arrive in what Brunelli referred to as
an electronic “security envelope.” The local election
official, in turn, will use a software program to separate
the ballot from the voter’s identification, which should
guarantee the same privacy all voters receive.
Brunelli sees the pilot project as the logical continuation
of other initiatives during this decade to make voting
easier for service members, their families and civilian
employees away from their home states. For example, in
1990, during Operation Desert Storm, FVAP worked with the
states to allow voters to receive and submit their ballots
by fax. Forty-four states now allow absentee voting by fax.
The success of that effort, she explained, prompted the
current pilot project using the Internet.
“We went to state and local government officials and
addressed the questions of how can we better respond to our
military absentee voter? How can we be more effective and
efficient? We’ve done all of these other things, but we’re
still experiencing problems with ballot transit time,”
Brunelli said. “And we decided voting over the Internet
would provide prompt response time while solving the ballot
transit problems.”
Following the 2000 elections, DoD and the five states
involved will examine the success of the pilot project.
Among the issues that will be studied will be the integrity
of the process or what Brunelli referred to as “one
person, one vote” ease of use and response time, and
overall security of the process.
“We’ll be compiling data not only from the voter’s point of
view, but from the local election officials point of view,
as well,” Brunelli said. The findings will be compiled in
early 2001 and shared with all states.
And ultimately, it’s the states themselves that control
whether Internet voting services are available to service
members, Brunelli pointed out.
“They have to have the legislation in place to allow it, as
well as the technical staff and physical surroundings, such
as a secure room for the server and the systems involved,”
she said. “Almost all states were represented when we
discussed this pilot program. They all have interest. The
challenges [after the pilot project] are to make it a
broader program to get legislation in place to allow
voting over the Internet. And we’re here to facilitate that
process.”
American Forces Press Service
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