The Pentagon

As recently reported on Etopia Media Voting News in "Congress passes the DOD Internet voting buck to the Election Assistance Commission; no comment yet from EAC," the "critical task" for developing reliable, useable, and legal remote Internet voting systems is now the creation of Remote Internet Voting System Standards by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), using technical assistance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and, possibly, money from the Department of Defense (DoD).

Under the provisions of Section 567 of the 2005 Defense Authorization Act, the Department of Defense (DoD) cannot provide its personnel and overseas American voters with access to a remote Internet voting system:

"until the first regularly scheduled general election for Federal office which occurs after the Election Assistance Commission notifies the Secretary [of Defense] that the Commission has established electronic absentee voting guidelines and certifies that it will assist the Secretary in carrying out the project."

Etopia Media Voting News (EMVN) recently queried the Department of Defense for details about the financing and timing of the EAC project to develop Remote Internet Voting System Standards. In response, DoD today provided EMNN with the following comments from Polli Brunelli, Director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), the Pentagon agency charged with supporting voting by military personnel and overseas American voters:

"The Department of Defense has not been approached by the EAC to provide any monetary assistance toward creating standards for internet voting.

"If the EAC makes such a request, the appropriate DoD officials will respond.

"The Department cannot speculate on the timetable for creation of standards for internet voting as it is in the hands of the EAC and NIST."