A similar study has just been completed by the California Internet voting task force, which announced in December that a system could be operable in 2001 were it not for a few substantial barriers. Any system must be secure against hackers and viruses and able to verify voters' identities. California will likely adopt a phase-in plan that soon places Internet voting stations alongside ballot boxes at polling stations. Whenever it is widely adopted, Internet voting will help increase voter turnout, which is low and falling. According to Alvarez, a political scientist at the California Institute of Technology, online voting could raise voter participation between 2 percent and 4 percent.
Several scenarios are possible.
Republicans could receive a similar boost from older, wealthier Americans. Any online voting scheme would be less accessible to minorities and low-income groups, which are less likely to go online. Skyrocketing Web use, however, could cancel out these effects or spawn unforeseen changes. Regardless of the voting shifts it facilitates, online voting will be part of an Internet democracy that could reinvigorate the political process. Already, more voters have more information about more candidates than ever before, forcing candidates to be more honest and competitive.