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Editorial: Secure the vote

A couple of decades into the Internet age, billions of dollars in commerce is transacted by credit cards via secure online servers.

And some computer networks, such as the military’s dot-mil domain, are even more secure, to the point that service members can check and update their personal pay information online.

So why can’t the Defense Department figure out a better way to support the tens of thousands of American service members and their families who must vote by absentee ballot?

A report after the 2006 elections showed that only 47.6 percent of absentee ballots cast by service members were counted. That’s appalling.

The problems in 2006 were the same ones that have existed for decades: Mail delivery of absentee ballots to and from far-flung military outposts is simply too slow for troops to request ballots and send them back in time to be counted before state deadlines.

Pentagon officials say Internet voting for service members won’t be in place for this fall’s elections, but could be available for the 2010 elections, if concerns about ballot security and potential fraud can be addressed.

Ballot fraud is not a minor concern. But as Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas, said at a recent hearing, it’s difficult to think of any computer network that is better insulated than the military’s dot-mil system.

Defense officials have been working on this issue for years, routinely offering vague prospects for a solution that always seems a couple of years off.

That’s no longer good enough. This is the Internet Age, and it is past time for Congress to turn up the heat and demand results on this important issue.

As Gonzalez bluntly put it to defense officials:

“The time is now.”