The trend is clear: the Internet is being used for a myriad of tasks. But, does the Internet have a future in local and national elections?

Gov. Gray Davis of California and Gov. George Pataki of New York, after attending the California Internet Voting Task Force meeting earlier this year, wrote an op ed article published this past January agreeing that most of the technology needed for a secure Internet voting system is presently in existence.

However, they raised concerns, concurring with the task force report, that voter fraud and data integrity need to be addressed as well as other negative aspects. The governors cited instances of hackers stealing passwords and credit card numbers as major caveats to future online voting.

Along with this cautionary thinking, the task force report released earlier this year listed further areas of concern.

Called by California Secretary of State Bill Jones to study potential use of the Internet in state elections, the task force included experts in data security, elections and voter participation who studied the possible impact Internet voting may have on county election officials.

Here’s what they found:

The first impact mentioned is funding and staffing, since both polling place access to the Internet for voting as well as remote voting systems require a commitment of significant county resources.

The second point they raised was the requirement that county election officials assure proper ballot configuration and the difficulty of doing that in an electronic environment.

Another area of impact for county officials is assuring that the tabulations from both the Internet voting and the paper system are complete and accurate.

The major impact on county officials, however, will be the process of comparing signatures on Internet ballot request forms with each voter’s signature on the voter registration roles prior to issuing an electronic identifier for voting use. The additional resources for this potentially labor-intensive task could affect a county’s ability to administer the process.

And finally, the task force report mentioned the requirement of having trained technical personnel available to assist with the electronic voting systems for each election.

In broader strokes, the task force said that the ability to vote via the Internet would increase election access to millions of people who don’t normally vote. They also reported that the threats to security, integrity and secrecy of Internet ballots are real and major concerns.

For a copy of the California Internet Task Force report, go to http://www.ss.ca.gov/executive/ivote/final_report.htm

(Research News is written by Jacqueline Byers, research director.)