Elections by nature are fraught with risk. This work examines the range of past methods and the various technologies that have been created to try to minimize risk and accurately reflect the will of voters. It evaluates the security issues and examines the impacts the computer-based solutions can have on voter participation.

Alvarez and Hall explain why the benefits of e-voting can outweigh the challenges, and they argue that media coverage of the new technologies has emphasized their problems while virtually ignoring their enormous potential for empowering more citizens to vote. The authors also offer ways to improve voting technologies and to develop more effective means of implementing and evaluating these systems. "Electronic Elections" makes a case for how e-voting can work in the United States, showing why making it work right is essential to the future vibrancy of the democratic process.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii
PREFACE ix
CHAPTER 1: What This Book Is About 1
CHAPTER 2: Paper Problems, Electronic Promises 12
CHAPTER 3: Criticisms of Electronic Voting 30
CHAPTER 4: The Frame Game 50
CHAPTER 5: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back 71
CHAPTER 6: The Performance of the Machines 100
CHAPTER 7: Public Acceptance of Electronic Voting 133
CHAPTER 8: A New Paradigm for Assessing Voting Technologies 156
CHAPTER 9: Conclusion 178
NOTES 191
BIBLIOGRAPHY 207
INDEX 217