I have been very critical of the Arizona election. I believe it was so dangerously unsecured that a single person, who wanted to, could attack that election anywhere in the world. I think a person could bring it down and affect the outcome. Jefferson believes the problems come not only from outside hazards such as hackers, but from users' computers. There is a misperception, according to Jefferson, that online voting is like Web banking or shopping.
Many people mix up voting security with e-commerce security. . . .
Jefferson believes the security issues are more complicated than regular Web transactions, saying the requirements are significantly harder than an online financial transaction. In a financial transaction, both parties know all the details of the transaction and walk away with proof that the transaction occurred. In a vote, both parties don't have complete information. We look to secure the authenticity of the voter, encrypt the vote, store the information separately, so that the vote is kept in a separate area from the information of the voter, so we can't track who voted how. Jefferson points out that in the case of a financial transaction you can accept a certain degree of fraud as part of the business.