In time for Halloween, spectre of Internet voting re-emerges

The recently signed "Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act" includes a mandate to establish pilot programs to study electronic voting.

Voting News gives the following link for the text of H. R. 2647:
http://tinyurl.com/y9qj9co or http://www.votelaw.com/blog/archives/006328.html

Voting via the Internet seems to be one of the options to be studied. This is suggested by the following clauses:

U.S. Steps Up Effort on Digital Defenses

http://tinyurl.com/ydp4kjz or
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/us/28cyber.html?_r=2&hp

Excerpts:

Or American intelligence agencies could activate malicious code that is secretly embedded on computer chips when they are manufactured, enabling the United States to take command of an enemy's computers by remote control over the Internet. That, of course, is exactly the kind of attack officials fear could be launched on American targets, often through Chinese-made chips or computer servers.

"We have seen Chinese network operations inside certain of our electricity grids," said Joel F. Brenner, who oversees counterintelligence operations for Dennis Blair, Mr. McConnell's successor as national intelligence director, speaking at the University of Texas at Austin this month. "Do I worry about those grids, and about air traffic control systems, water supply systems, and so on? You bet I do."

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