A promising road to Internet voting
Mercury News Editorial

Many reports since the 2000 election have cautioned against proceeding with voting over the Internet until fundamental security problems can be resolved.

The Pentagon ignored the warnings. It's moving ahead with a system that will enable 100,000 overseas residents to vote in presidential primaries and the November election.

The goal is right; absentee voting from abroad is cumbersome, requiring multiple mailings and difficult deadlines. Huge numbers of soldiers' ballots were lost in 2000. But the system the Pentagon chose, enabling voting on any PC with a Microsoft operating system, presents an inviting target to hackers. It would be particularly risky to expand that model for the 6.5 million Americans living abroad.

Critics suggest making downloadable ballots available, then requiring overseas voters to mail back paper ballots. As a transition to Internet voting, they've got it right.