[Ragtime Cowgirl]

The secure electronic registration and voting experiment program is part of the Federal Voting Assistance Program. Program organizers hope the experiment will encourage as many as 100,000 absentee voters, including reservists stationed worldwide, to register and vote in state primaries and the general election in 2004.

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Heads up, esp. Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Washington Freepers serving.

[mark502inf]

In 2000, a post-election survey found that almost 30 percent either did not receive a ballot at all or received it too late.

I was one of them; was on a remote assignment--requested my absentee ballot in September, received it the Thursday after the election. Part of the problem was transit time, but my ballot was also mailed late due to local wrangling over ballot proposals. Wrote a letter to the mayor of my hometown & they changed the city's absentee ballot process to get them out earlier. The solution is often local.

[mgist]

Do you have to be out of the country to request an absentee ballot?

[supercat]

Actually, using on-line vote reporting for things like military polling places makes a lot of sense. Paper ballots can be cast and kept for audits, while encrypted electronic vote tallies can be sent in before the paper ballots arrive. Unlike most "on-line" voting systems where the voters' equipment is not secure, maintaining security over the military's voting equipment should be entirely practical.

[quietolong]

Bull! This is just a way to get more RAT votes! Can you say hacked vote fraud!

[lilylangtree]

The owl gores of the political arena won't be able to discount the military vote. Hot diggity dog!