Soldiers would request a ballot via air mail and return it the same way. This year soldiers all over the world are submitting their votes for the midterm election via email.

But is this a good thing? And are their votes safe from tampering?

Security experts from with the Pentagon warn of the potential risks linked with encrypted messages- identity fraud, hacking, and interception.

States have the option on how to exchange ballots with the overseas troops. They can fax, e-mail or mail the ballots, or a combination of the methods. In 1990, the federal government began the use of faxed ballots, when US troops were stationed in the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Shield.

E-mail, however, is only an option in those states that allow it; at the moment eight do. Mississippi was the first, allowing troops overseas to vote by e-mail in a 2003 gubernatorial election.

Soldiers faxing and e-mailing their ballots also must sign waivers saying they understand that somebody might see their ballot, says J. Scott Wiedmann, deputy director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program. "There's no U.S. constitutional guarantee to a secret ballot," he said.

But I must echo the sentiment of David Wagner, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, Will soldiers feel free to vote their conscience when they know that the Department of Defense may be able to see how they voted?

SOURCE:
E-Mail Voting Comes With Risks
U.S. soldiers' overseas votes ripe for fraud
Download: Dept. of Defense internal review of voting system (PDF)