Web Voting Program Scrapped

The Pentagon said Thursday that it had scrapped its program to allow troops and other Americans overseas to vote through the Internet because the system was so vulnerable to computer hackers that it could cast doubt on the integrity of election results.

The Pentagon heeded the advice of cyber-security experts who urged in a Jan. 21 report that the program be abandoned because it was impossible to create a voting system with current personal computers and the Internet that would stop hackers or terrorists from tampering with election results.

The $22-million Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, or SERVE, program was supposed to allow 100,000 U.S. troops and civilians overseas to cast votes through the Internet during this presidential election year.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz wrote a memo Jan. 30 saying the Pentagon “will not be using the SERVE Internet voting project in view of the inability to assure legitimacy of votes that would be cast using the system, which thereby brings into doubt the integrity of election results,” said a defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Officials previously defended the system, saying security had been enhanced.