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To: R. Jaynes who wrote (12380)	2/5/1999 5:20:00 PM
From: David	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 26039

Here's an interesting possibility that biometric Internet communications can create: Electronic signatures on initiatives and referenda. This has been suggested in California, although there are authentication problems: nytimes.com Here's an excerpt: As it stands, sponsors of initiatives must spend at least an estimated $1 million just to collect signatures -- a cost that's hardly the hallmark of a populist tool. Allowing people to sign petitions on the Internet could lower that cost substantially, by eliminating he need for all the legwork. "It would bring the initiative process back to what it's supposed to be, rather than the big-money interests," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, a nonprofit group in Sacramento. In an effort started recently, Tim Draper, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, had hoped to collect signatures on the Internet for an education-related initiative he is sponsoring. His plans were thwarted by the fact that politics has not caught up with technology. Now, Draper is planning meetings with California's Secretary of State, Bill Jones, to press the issue. "We are actively pursuing it," said Barry Hutchison, spokesman for Draper's localchoice2000.com venture. "We see it as a logical progression as the way society is doing more and more activity." Despite that Silicon-fueled optimism, the notion of collecting signatures on the Internet faces substantial political hurdles before it can become reality. Jones said allowing people to sign petitions with digital signatures would require an act of the Legislature. Jones is currently assembling a commission to develop recommendations for the Legislature on that issue as well as the concept of allowing Californians to cast ballots via Internet. It will not be an easy issue to tackle for a large state with a burgeoning political system. . . . . The notion of seeking help from the Legislature is problematic in itself. The Legislature has historically been at odds with the initiative process, which is designed to bypass legislators' authority. Jones anticipates that the issues surrounding online security and whether systems would identify individual voters will prove to be tricky in the capitol. [Emphasis added.] ____________ It's this kind of idea that empowers voters with computers over voters without computers. We are just seeing the beginnings of these kinds of issues.