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VOI system and eighty-four votes were cast using the Internet. Despite demonstrating that the
technology could work, the pilot project cost a great deal of money and it did not lead to any
scientific understanding of how Internet voting affected the UOCAVA voting experience
(Alvarez and Hall 2003).
The VOI system ensured a very high degree of security (Alvarez and Hall 2003).
UOCAVA participants were sent a CD-ROM with the software necessary to register and vote.
Voters also had to have a Department of Defense-issued digital certificate, since the FVAP used
the department’s medium assurance public key infrastructure (DoD PKI) for voter
authentication. To get a DoD PKI, an individual had to apply ini person, using official DoD
identification, and then download the digital certificate to a floppy disk. To log on to the VOI
system to register and vote, voters began by logging in to a central server that authenticated
their digital certificate and allowed them to vote. Once a citizen’s registration and absentee
ballot request was approved by the local election office, the citizen could initiate a voting
session. This required logging in to the central server, where the voter’s digital certificate was
verified (Alvarez and Hall 2003).
Michigan’s Online Voting (2004)
Thousands of Michigan Democrats cast their ballots for their 2004 caucuses using the
Internet (Jesdanun 2004). Voting in Michigan began in early January 2004. Both the
Michigan Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee took security issues into
account before deciding to go ahead. The Michigan Democratic Party saw Internet voting as a
way to increase turnout. About 123,000 registered Democrats requested ballots to vote online
Convention