Some didn't vote, and some have left the service, she says. When they got online to vote, that's the only ballot they could get. All ballots, encrypted, were returned by Monday night, she says. If online voting were commonplace, we might already know Florida's tally, says Jonathan Zittrain, head of Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. But serious changes in the national political dialogue could result, he says.
Security is of paramount concern.
Cranor says she would be surprised if problems occurred with the online votes in Florida. But she cites significant security hurdles to online voting on a larger scale. The home PC would need to be secure, and voters would have to install complicated software. We couldn't use standard browsers, and we would need a way to authenticate users, like passwords or encryption keys. New Medium, New Issues Security isn't the only concern.