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Internet Voting Initiatives

California Initiatives

Victory!

Information as of late March, 2016, indicates that the billionaire backer of initiatives #15-0117 and #15-0118 is probably not collecting signatures! This is an unexpected, but truly a big win for democracy!

Information

Official Initiative Documents

Action

The Experts Say …

Retired Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, former Chairmain, Joint Chiefs of Staff

“I know we cannot defend against what we can do offensively.”
– We’re fighting an invisible war — in cyberspace (CNET, 3/16)

Computer Technologists’ Statement on Internet Voting

“Election results must be verifiably accurate — that is, auditable with a permanent, voter-verified record that is independent of hardware or software. Several serious, potentially insurmountable, technical challenges must be met if elections conducted by transmitting votes over the internet are to be verifiable. There are also many less technical questions about internet voting, including whether voters have equal access to internet technology and whether ballot secrecy can be adequately preserved. …”
“The internet has the potential to transform democracy in many ways, but permitting it to be used for public elections without assurance that the results are verifiably accurate is an extraordinary and unnecessary risk to democracy.”
– http://www.verifiedvoting.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/InternetVotingStatement.pdf

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

“Internet voting systems cannot currently be audited with a comparable level of confidence in the audit results as those for polling place systems. Malware on voters’ personal computers poses a serious threat that could compromise the secrecy or integrity of voters’ ballots. And, the United States currently lacks a public infrastructure for secure electronic voter authentication.”
– “NIST Activities on UOCAVA Voting”, by the Information Technology Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology,

Roy G. Saltman, pioneer in proposing voting system standards:

“I fully agree that no Internet connection should be permitted.”
– Letter to California Voter Foundation

Richard Stallman, pioneer in open source software:

“Why you can’t trust internet voting.
0. You can’t trust counting the votes in a computer. The people who run the server might rig the software to lie. (This applies to all use of computers to count votes.)
1. It is not good enough if the voting client software is secure. If your machine is a zombie, the botnet will choose your vote.
2. It is not good enough if the client computer is secure. Your boss could insist you vote while he watches.
Copyright (c) 2014 Richard Stallman Verbatim copying and redistribution of this entire page are permitted provided this notice is preserved.”

– Why you can’t trust internet voting.. See also: Internet Voting

Utah iVote Advisory Committee

“… the unconstrained nirvana of Internet voting, “from any device, entirely online,” is so impossible, or at least infeasible, as to be a fool’s errand.”
– Final Report, page 6.

Organizations Opposed to Internet voting in the foreseeable future:

  • Voting Rights Task Force
  • Verified Voting
  • Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
  • Diablo Valley Democratic Club
  • TriValley Democratic Club