Overseas Mexicans from Mexico City will be able to vote on the Internet in local but not federal races

Ricardo Alday is the spokesman of the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C. He explained to Etopia News this afternoon that the recent Mexican court decision allowing overseas Mexican citizens registered to vote in Mexico City to vote over the Internet only allows them to vote in local Mexico City elections using that technology. As far as voting for federal officials, overseas Mexicans from Mexico City, like overseas Mexicans from the rest of the country, will only be able to do so by postal means.

Asked why only Mexicans from Mexico City will be able to use the Internet to vote for local officials, such as the Mayor and the City Assembly, Mr. Alday indicated that this was in response to a proposal by Mexico City officials, approved by relevant electoral authorities. Mexico City is known as one of the most progressive cities in the Western Hemisphere. With a population of more than 20 million people, it is considered to be at the forefront of social change in many areas.

The embassy spokesman explained further that only registered voters who indicate prior to March 15, 2012, their interest in using the Internet to vote in the July 1st elections will be allowed to do so. He also said that the process of appeal against the decision allowing for the Internet voting was “exhausted,” so that the Internet voting will definitely proceed.

Overseas “chilangos,” as residents of Mexico City are known, can get more information about this worldwide Internet voting opportunity and sign up for the electronic vote at:

http://www.votachilango.org.mx/index.php?cadena

“Everybody,” Mr. Alday added, “Is watching this with a lot of attention.”

British Columbia’s Attorney General is appointing an expert panel to review online voting for the province.

Shirley Bond, the Attorney General of the Canadian province of British Columbia, today told Etopia News that her office is working to appoint an expert panel to review online voting for this Pacific Coast province.

A spokesperson for Attorney General Bond today sent the following statement to Etopia News in response to our inquiries:

“Our government is committed to looking at new ways of voting and investigating whether online voting is a viable voting option for British Columbians. Premier Christy Clark and I support voting options that make it easier for British Columbians to participate, however, before we make any decisions we’ll need to be certain that all security-related concerns and other issues can be addressed. As promised, the work related to appointing an expert panel to review online voting is currently underway."

According to Wikipedia:

"In 2009, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,419,974 (about two and a half million of whom were in Greater Vancouver). The province is currently governed by the BC Liberal Party, led by Premier Christy Clark, who became leader as a result of the party election on February 26, 2011."

William Kelleher, author and Internet voting advocate, calls OVF solution “silly”

Etopia News recently published, in their entirety, comments opposing the use of remote Internet voting for uniformed and overseas voters from Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, President and CEO of the Overseas Vote Foundation. Herewith is a response to these comments by William Keller, a strong supporter of using the Internet for this purpose, and the author of Internet Voting Now!:

“In my view, their ‘solution’ is silly. Why wait three days, assuming the best of circumstances, for delivery of a voted ballot? When professionally set up and operated, Internet voting can reduce the voting and ballot return time to minutes.

“How is the US Postal Service going to pick up voted ballots in remote mountain locations, or hot war zones? It isn’t going to happen. Military personnel in harm's way deserve the right to vote more than any of us in our comfy homes.

“OVF suffers from failing to follow its own advice. They rely exclusively on ardent anti-Internet voting activists as their source of proof that the technology is insecure. Yet, they must disregard the plain facts of Internet voting successes in West Virginia and around the world. They have failed to do their ‘homework.’ The existence of these systems also shows that OVFs claim that ‘nearly every computer scientist or cyber security expert’ is against Internet voting is false. Scores of these professionals are out there doing what a minority of vocal opponents say can’t be done. It’s a classic case of Nervous Nellie Luddites making up facts and telling scary stories to validate their scientifically unsound fears.

“Finally, OVFs solution entrusts the professionals at FedEx and the Post Office to carry voted ballots. But the more humans are involved in the transportation of paper, the higher the likelihood of human error resulting in the loss of votes. There are also the threats of accident, natural disaster, or enemy attack that could cause a loss of voted ballots.

“As long as we must entrust professionals, we might as well do what Natalie Tennant does in West Virginia – trust the Internet voting professionals.”

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