Kansas State Tries Internet Election
- By Dan Caterinicchia, Dan Caterinicchia
- Apr 03, 2000
More than 19,000 students at Kansas State University had a chance to cast
online ballots in mid-March to elect their student body government.
In three days of voting, students from the main campus and the Salina,
Kan., campus could vote remotely from any computer with Internet access.
The Internet voting technology was provided by Bellevue, Wash.-based Internet
voting company VoteHere.net.
"University students use computers on a daily basis and will find voting
over the Internet easier to fit into their hectic schedules," said Travis
Morgan, KSU's elections chairman.
The company's technology interfaced with the school's Access Technology
System, which was used to authenticate students. Authenticated voters were
then routed to the ballot page at VoteHere.net. The custom ballot page included
candidates from all the student body offices, senate and council seats.
After students voted, their ballots were encrypted and transmitted via
the Internet to VoteHere.net's secure election center, where they were decrypted
and tallied.