US electronic voting developments

While I was away from my desk, some interesting developments took place in the US on remote Internet voting. Barbara Simons, Avi Rubin and others came out with a report that blasted the Pentagon's current plans to implement e-voting for overseas service personnel [SERVE project], and the Pentagon promptly abandoned its plans.

Both The Register and The New York Times (registration required) reported on the outcome, while e-week tried putting a positive spin on the dispute, arguing that some scientists still think it's a viable idea. Further coverage in TechWeb.

The NYT's story points to the fact that the 'minority report' authors were the only experts that actually turned up for the six days of briefings on the system: "There is no majority report because the other experts did not write their views" [or turn up at the briefings].

A NYT editorial today, 'Budgeting for Another Florida', reports that Bush's funding for upgrading voting technology across the US has been severely curtailed.