Article 1, section 8, of the US Constitution enumerates the
specific powers of Congress.
Among these are: “The Congress shall have power … To
regulate Commerce … To coin money … and fix the standard of weights and
measures.” The Framers had learned from unhappy experiences under the Articles
of Confederation that without uniform standards for money, the new nation’s
economy had little chance of thriving. They had also learned that without
uniform “weights and measures,” the growth of science and technology, industry,
and commerce would be crippled by chaos.
Out of its continuing efforts to exercise these powers
responsibly, in 1988 Congress created the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST), which is currently a non-regulatory agency within the
Department of Commerce.
NIST has such a vital role in the progress of science that
it can aptly be understood as the Voice of Science in the USA.
When
Congress established the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), in 2002, in a
display of foresight, it required NIST to provide the EAC technical support on
the research and development of, among other things, “remote access voting,
including voting through the Internet.”
Yes, Congress is thinking about Internet voting for all US
elections!
So, what did NIST do in response to its mandate from
Congress? NIST put its name on a copy of the old 2004 SERVE Security Report by
Avi Rubin, David Jefferson, David Wagner, and Barbara Simons.
That Report is where all the scary stories about supposed
Internet voting insecurity got started. Like, “a teenage hacker in Iran could
change all the votes in a presidential election!”
Great scary story, but where’s the science? Where’s the facts?
Internet voting has been tried in public elections nearly
100 times around the world w/o any security problems. (The 2010 DC hack occurred
because it wasn’t built by pros, see DC Hack Fiasco and DC Hack Conspiracy ) Shamefully, NIST has done NO scientific research, but only reproduced a bunch of scary stories, and presented that to Congress.
Common Cause – that saintly source of democratic ideals –
has also helped to promote scary stories about Internet voting w/o any facts or
science. (See Common Cause )
So now there is a careful study of the BAD SCIENCE that has
the whole country shaking in its boots whenever somebody says “I hate standing
in lines! Why can’t we have voting online?”
The paper is being presented at a panel at the Western
Political Science Association this month. Its ready for the most critical
scrutiny a scholar can give it. It shows that the anti-Internet voting
extremists have NO intellectual foundation for crying “wolf!”
Its time for an intelligent, informed, Reason-based debate
on Internet voting!
Download my paper, in pdf form, for free at
William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Political Scientist, author, speaker,
CEO for The Internet Voting Research and Education Fund
Political Scientist, author, speaker,
CEO for The Internet Voting Research and Education Fund
Twitter: wjkno1
Author of Internet
Voting Now!
