In Point, Click, and Vote, voting experts Michael Alvarez and Thad Hall make a strong case for greater experimentation with Internet voting. In their words, "There is no way to know whether any argument regarding Internet voting is accurate unless real Internet voting systems are tested, and they should be tested in small-scale, scientific trials so that their successes and failures can be evaluated." In other words, you never know until you try, and it"s time to try harder. The authors offer a realistic plan for putting pilot remote Internet voting programs into effect nationwide. Such programs would allow U.S. voters in selected areas to cast their ballots over any Internet connection; they would not even need to leave home. If these pilot programs are successful, the next step is to consider how they might be implemented on a larger scale in future elections.
R. Michael Alvarez is professor of political science at the California Institute of Technology and codirector of the Caltech-MIT Voting Technology Project. His books include Hard Choices, Easy Answers: Values, Information, and American Public Opinion, written with John Brehm (Princeton, 2002). He is a nationally recognized expert on voting behavior and elections.
Thad E. Hall is assistant professor of political science and a research fellow in the Institute of Public and International Affairs at the University of Utah. Together with R. Michael Alvarez, he wrote Point, Click, and Vote: The Future of Internet Voting (Brookings, 2004).
Content :
Preface
1. The Past and Future of Internet Voting
2. Conventional Wisdom about Unconventional Voting
3. Representation and the Digital Divide
4. Internet Voting, Political Debate, and Policymaking
5. Security and Internet Voting
6. Analogies
7. Trails of Internet Voting
8. What Can Be Done to Make Internet Voting a Reality?
AARON CHATTERJI
