Internet not ready for democracy
NIST concludes that Internet technology isn't yet able to support online voting.
The Internet’s not ready for full participation in democracy, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
NIST found that the prospect of allowing people to vote in elections online is too risky, according to Belinda Collins, senior advisor for voting standards within NIST's information technology laboratory, quoted in an article at FierceGovernmentIT.
Malware on users’ computers could compromise the security or integrity of ballots, and there is no infrastructure in place to authenticate the identity of Internet users, she said in a statement prepared for the advocacy group Common Cause.
NIST’s report “Security Considerations for Remote Electronic UOCAVA Voting,” published in February 2011, details NIST’s findings on the subject. (UOCAVA stands for Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.)