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Gore Wins First-Ever US Cyber Election By Magan Crane WASHINGTON (AFP) - The first US experiment with Internet voting drew tens of thousands of voters in Arizona this week, heralding the start of what could be a new era in America's electoral process. Cyber voting effectively tripled turnout in Arizona's Democratic presidential primary, with at least 35,000 people taking part in the vote, which was won by Vice President Al Gore. "I am very proud to win history's first online election," Gore said in a statement Sunday, heralding not just the advent of computer voting, but also the growing importance of computers in all aspects of American life. "If I am entrusted with the presidency, I will work to make Internet access and computers more available, so that more of our people can take advantage of this technology to improve their lives," he said. Over four days of
remote on-line voting, which opened early last Tuesday and ended just
before midnight last Friday, voters were able to cast ballots from home,
work, public libraries, or anyplace else with Internet
access. Organizers proclaimed the experiment a resounding success. During the last presidential primary four years ago some 12,000 Arizonans voted – just one third of the voters in this week's cyber vote. "The turnout has been nothing short of phenomenal," said Bill Taylor, vice president of election.com, the company that ran Arizona's on-line experiment. "We've had an outstanding success. We're thrilled that so many people wanted to participate." Those without access to the Internet, or with an affinity to old-fashioned polling, could vote in person Saturday for the 31 Arizona delegates to the Democratic nominating convention in Los Angeles this summer. Cortland Coleman, interim executive director of the Arizona Democratic party, said the party had been looking for ways to increase turnout and found the number of people participating in an uncontested primary overwhelming. "We do feel that our election was a success, with increased methods of voting. We brought more people to the democratic process, and that is always a success," Coleman said. Taylor said "We think in the future, people are only going to want to vote on-line," he said. In order to prevent vote-rigging, electronic voters have to be pre-registered, punch in a special identification number, and provide personal information. Taylor said they detected no problems with security Saturday or during the four days of remote voting. Several other states, including those with harsher climates like Alaska, have already expressed their interest in virtual voting. "In four years, I won't be surprised if the next president of the United States will be directly elected by the Internet," said Fred Solop, a researcher at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Not everyone is
pleased, however. Political analyst George Will railed in the Washington
Post recently against "people who are too slothful or uninterested to
leave their homes in order to vote."
Newswires |
