"Today, the Internet may look like a hacker convention. However, the challenges facing Internet Voting are actually fading away as privacy and security issues in Internet communications and voting protocols are, more and more, being clearly solved," says Ed Gerck, Ph.D., elected Chairman of the Internet Voting Technology Alliance (IVTA). The IVTA is an open forum for discussion of the technological issues facing Internet and electronic voting.

Public sector voting using the Internet has advanced considerably since the IVTA was founded, largely due to the individual contributions of the companies and researchers who founded the IVTA in 2000. "The IVTA helped by providing an early and genuinely open forum for technical discussions by all of the stakeholders where participants have an equal voice, much like the IETF model that created the Internet. The IVTA does not have the usual (and artificial) separation between 'vendors' and 'experts' that characterizes the election technology discussions even today," continues Ed Gerck. "Arguments should stand on their own technical merit. Most people are able to distinguish rhetoric from fact, especially because open discussions favor the presentation of many points of view which are evaluated by reason."

Voting is moving from art to science. The IVTA's purpose is to advance the science and technology of voting. From our Mission Statement, the primary goal of the IVTA is to ensure a high level of quality and integrity in the resources and information provided, in order to foster public confidence in Internet Voting. In keeping with established Internet traditions, the Alliance operates in an open and collaborative manner and favor consensus. "We know that consensus usually take a long time to develop but Internet Voting technology has so many sociological, legal and political implications that we need to allow time to hear and respond to all sides," comments Gerck. The IVTA is not an association of vendors or users of voting systems, where 'vendors’ and 'experts' oftentimes exchange roles when convenient. Nor is the IVTA a partisan organization.

One of the results of the IVTA work, developed entirely online in open listserver dialogues, is the "Voting System Requirements", published in the The Bell, January 2001 (ISSN 1530-048X), and available online at http://thebell.net/archives/thebell2.2.pdf. The IVTA discussions, refining technical arguments on privacy and security in Internet voting, can also be recognized in several peer-reviewed articles published in the 2003 Springer-Verlag book "Secure Electronic Voting", edited by Prof. Dr. Dimitris Gritzalis, ISBN 1-4020-7301-1.

The Internet has leveled the playing field to hundreds of millions, ordinary people, worldwide, debunking the fear of the "digital divide". Statistically, the largest increases in Internet users in the U.S., for example, come from minority groups. The Internet is becoming a truly democratic tool.

When we, approximately 50 participants from government, non-profit and private backgrounds, created the IVTA in 2000, we started a fresh approach to Internet Voting and security that continues to be influential and useful, applied to voting standards and practical developments in several work groups and companies worldwide. We shall soon find new opportunities for dialogue.

The IVTA wants to re-start public, listserver discussions. Do you have suggestions for work areas or would like to help any other way? Please send your comments to the IVTA and make your voice heard in democratic, open, electronic voting discussions. To prevent abuse by spammers, IVTA will be using free secure email ZMAIL [http://1zmail.com] for our contacts with you, Please get your no-cost ZMAIL BASIC account and send a ZMAIL with your input to infoq@ivta.org. NOTE: The email address infoq@ivta.org will only forward ZMAIL messages to us.

Thank you!