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A group of skeptical voters are objecting to Okaloosa County’s plans to experiment with Internet voting for overseas service members, raising the possibility of a lawsuit if Secretary of State Kurt Browning doesn’t squelch the idea.
Under plans by Okaloosa Elections Supervisor Pat Hollarn for Operation Bravo, service members in Germany, England and Okinawa would vote at computer stations on encrypted electronic ballots. A secure computer line would transmit the data to Spain and then Florida. Only Florida election officials would be able to decode the ballots, according to Hollarn.
The voters would also see a paper printout of the ballots prior to transmittal. Hollarn noted that’s more than Florida’s 2007 paper-trail legislation requires for disabled voters.
But Dan McCrea of a group called Florida Voters Coalition isn’t buying it.
“Taxpayers are still reeling from the costly mistake of allowing DRE touchscreen voting before that technology was secure,” he said in a letter to Browning today. “We mustn’t repeat that mistake.”
He called Operation Bravo “illegal” and “dangerous.”
McCrea cites the 2007 paper-trail statute, while Hollarn cites a 2005 statute permitting safe electronic transmission of election materials. McCrea said Browning should rule that the 2007 law is the controlling law.
McCrea also contends that Hollarn has a conflict of interest because she heads the Operation Bravo Foundation, which is “essentially ... a voting system vendor.”
But Hollarn replies the foundation is only a fundraiser for the project, and said McCrea’s accusation is “grasping at straws.”
Browning spokeswoman Jennifer Davis said he hasn’t yet received Okaloosa’s final plans and had little comment. But she differed with McCrea’s characterization of the project as “internet voting,” comparing the the ballot transmission to a fax.
As for HR 5673, while the delays in mail delivery are a huge part of the problem, the strident opposition by the postal unions has ensured the current Congressional leadership will not allow either it to be considered.
FVC also misses the most important point – the US Postal System only has the mail for about 2-3 days of the 12-18 it averages to get to military overseas. So it’s still going to take 20-32 days roundtrip for the ballot. But since most absentee ballots aren’t sent out until 30 days prior to the election, the probability is still great that the military voter won’t get their ballot in time to be able to send it back by the deadline.
Okaloosa County’s project is not internet voting. Votes are cast and tabulated at a kiosk site, just as at any polling place The only internet connection is after the votes are cast and tabulated, and then a virtual private network (VPN) connection is established to send the tabulated results back to Okaloosa County in a single transmission.
It is ironic FVC cites the SERVE Scientific Peer Review Group Minority report as supposedly condemning the technology to be used in the Okaloosa County project. In fact, that report endorses the Okaloosa County technology saying that such a kiosk system “avoids the dangers of these [internet and PC computer] architectural features.”
Bob Carey
Senior Fellow
National Defense Committee
I have an idea of how to solve the overseas problem.
Bring them HOME where they can vote with the rest of us.
This idea is like week old fish…. it stinks!
Phil,
We certainly care to find solutions for our overseas voters. As we wrote in our letter to Secretary Browning, one solution might be a bi-partisan bill introduced in Congress last month.
HR 5673 empowers the Department of Defense to use express mail to deliver ballots back to where they belong in the US, and allows military voters to cast those ballots up to four days before election day.
You can read our letter, learn more about HR 5678, and other work Florida Voters does, on our website at www.floridavoters.org.
Regards,
-Dan McCrea
Mr. McCrea is quick to tell the Secretary of State what “won’t work,” while acknowledging that a serious problem exists for those men and women serving overseas. Where, I ask then, is any viable suggestions about how to remedy this serious problem from Mr. McCrea?
I have the same problem with Rush Limbaugh . . . too much mouth and not a single suggestion to solve the problem!
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Posted by Phil N. D'Oval, Florida on 06/02 at 09:23 AM
Dan,
Your letter mentions “less expensive, more secure solutions” just before it endorses HR5673.
So Express Mail (an average of $10-$15 a piece) is cheaper than using the kiosk model proposed by Okaloosa County (mentioned, I recall, by Avi Rubin as the best method in his SERVE report), and somehow more secure than both the internet and regular (and cheaper) mail?
If the Help America Vote Act calls on the EAC to “study internet voting” and opponents such as you won’t allow internet voting projects to proceed, what, then, should the EAC be studying? Perhaps they should spend a lot of time (and plenty of taxpayer $$) in Europe where internet voting is advancing in leaps and bounds, leaving we who “created” the internet behind.