When was the first Internet election run?  Where, for whom etc?
Was it legally binding or a "shadow" election?
It would have to have some mechanism to prevent duplicate voting and
would have to have been accessible via a normal www address (so not an
Intranet vote).
It was likely to be during or before 1997.  I ran one that year.
I heard a rumour of one in 1996 as being the first but know little more.

---

Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 09 Jan 2004 07:35 PST

What kind of election? 

You mentioned that "you" held an election so are you asking about ANY
kind of election?

Legally binding to what degree? In other words, are we talking about
an informal election of local club officials/members or that of
constitionally elected governement officials?

regards;
tutuzdad-ga

---

Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 09 Jan 2004 20:10 PST

Also, would you include an election where only some of the votes were
cast over the Internet?

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 10 Jan 2004 06:15 PST

The first legally binding internet election is generally regarded to
have taken place in Arizona in the year 2000, where voters could vote
over the internet in the Democratic primary election.

Earlier internet "votes" were more along the lines of polls, than an
actual voting process (I believe the League of Women Voters was active
in some of these)..to the best of my knowledge, none of them were
legally binding in any way.

Would you like details of the 2000 Arizona effort as an answer to your question?

---

Clarification of Question by threedaygoaty-ga on 11 Jan 2004 16:11 PST

In response to the replies below: 
1. we know Stanford Uni elected student representatives in 1997 via
the www.  I was responsible for the University of Melbourne
Postgraduate Association Council www election on 24/10/97.  Perhaps
"legally binding" is the wrong term - I refer to elections other than
polls, exit surveys and "shadow ballots" where the outcome has no
binding effect on candidates, the institution or anything else.  An
"informal" election that is as I describe in 2. (next) is an election.
2. The kind of election - people/members/ the public /stake holders
etc, voting for issues / ammendments / people, such that the outcome
causes some sort of change of office or change of procedure according
to the entity's constitution/ local law / state-federal law etc.
3. Not all votes need be cast over the Internet.  This can include the
WWW or not as appropriate but I would hope to find the first www
ballot.  We know email is used for proxy voting but this is of less
interest.
4. We know about Arizona and we do not believe it was the first www
ballot as per my definition of point 2. above.  We think the first one
was in 1996, somewhere in the US.

---

Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 11 Jan 2004 19:45 PST

Could you review the comment I posted below and get back to me?

Thank you.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

Dear threedaygoaty-ga;

At your approval of my answer-as-a-comment I am re-posting my research
as an answer in order to officially close the question for you. It has
been my pleasure to work with you and I look forward to doing it again
in the near future:

--------------------------------------------------------------

To provide a little background on this matter we should first discuss
Murray Turoff, who, in 1970 developed a computer supported Delphi
panel which made it possible for users to view discussion entered by
users (forums and BBS?s), vote on issues and view end user results.
This system, which was still in place as late as the early 1990?s, had
a human coordinator, and among its early applications were regional
policymaking and service planning. It would prove to be the defining
moment that set the stage for online voting.

While Turoff?s system was still in it?s infancy, Jaques Vallee and
Robert Johansen of the Institute for the Future in San Francisco,
California developed a system called FORUM in 1973 that was a
Delphi-like network system that handled messages and voting in many
flexible forms. The pair created a simplified version of the system in
1975 called PLANET and sent it to Sweden to be used for the Swedish
government?s TERESE Project (Telecommunications and Regional
Development in Sweden), one of the first experiments in the area of
public use and socially conscious application of computerized
conferencing including voting.

In subsequent years came the KOM system, the EIES computer
conferencing system, New York?s ETM (Electronic Town Meeting) system.
These systems were network systems, many of them containing numerous
flexible user functions, of which voting was an important one.

Almost simultaneously, The Minitel, connected to the network Télétel
(based on the packet switching network Transpac) went into operation
in France. In it?s hey-day Minitel was the world's most frequently
used general-purpose online machine and was in many cases used for
discussion and subsequent online voting.

There were, of course, systems already in place for ?tele-voting?
through terminals connected to telephone lines much like computers
were prior to today?s DSL, Cable and satellite powered systems. Ned
Crosby of Minnesota created one such network in 1973 and assembled
?citizen juries? to decide on issues, and Peter Dienel of Wuppertal,
Germany, organized "Planungszelle" with the same aim. ?Televote?
projects were also inspired by a man named Vincent Campbell of San
Jose, California in 1974 to encourage citizen participation local
planning issues and to record their votes through a telephone
connected system. Using the same concept some years later in 1978, Ted
Becker and Christa Slaton of Hawaii University convinced hundreds of
people to particpate in a deliberation proving that networked
electronic voting was a blossoming reality and a future option, not
only for those who were interested in public opinion but for the
purposes of elections as well.


Now, enough of the history lesson. As per your question, there?s no
accurate way to know for certain of course if some obscure group
didn?t do it first and it has just gone unrecorded, but for history
sake it seems that the first major election process, which fits your
criteria, would be this one:

?In 1996, in the USA, the Reform Party became the first US political
party to use Internet voting (along with telephone and postal mail
voting) to select a Presidential candidate. Over 2000 voters voted via
the Internet.?
HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC VOTING
http://www.eucybervote.org/Reports/KUL-WP2-D4V1-v1.0-01.htm#P323_14632

Followed closely in 1997 by the official implementation of electronic
internet voting in Cologne, Germany.

Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher


INFORMATION SOURCES

Defined above

SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

history "online electronic voting"

history "electronic voting"

history of e-voting

The researcher adding a prologue to the answer was a nice touch.
It is not clear if the answers given on Google Answers can be used by
me for anything.  I understand from the Terms that the answer comes
with no warrantee etc and the it may be used by Google for whatever,
but I am keen to use the answer and would prefer not to have to
paraphrase it etc.

Why would an Internet election have to be accessible via "a normal www
address"? That would only apply if it were a Web-based election. The
Internet predates the Web.

Owain

Dear threedaygoaty-ga;

Normally researchers try to avoid posting answers as comments but I?ve
watched this question for some time now thinking that maybe a
researcher knew of instance earlier than the information I found.
Since it appears that no on has done so I am going to post my research
as a comment in hopes that you will accept it as an official answer.
You see, there just isn?t any fool-proof way to tell if what I found
is the first such election or not, so I?m hoping that if it answers
your question you will advise me, at which time I will officially
close the question for you. Here goes:

To provide a little background on this matter we should first discuss
Murray Turoff, who, in 1970 developed a computer supported Delphi
panel which made it possible for users to view discussion entered by
users (forums and BBS?s), vote on issues and view end user results.
This system, which was still in place as late as the early 1990?s, had
a human coordinator, and among its early applications were regional
policymaking and service planning. It would prove to be the defining
moment that set the stage for online voting.

While Turoff?s system was still in it?s infancy, Jaques Vallee and
Robert Johansen of the Institute for the Future in San Francisco,
California developed a system called FORUM in 1973 that was a
Delphi-like network system that handled messages and voting in many
flexible forms. The pair created a simplified version of the system in
1975 called PLANET and sent it to Sweden to be used for the Swedish
government?s TERESE Project (Telecommunications and Regional
Development in Sweden), one of the first experiments in the area of
public use and socially conscious application of computerized
conferencing including voting.

In subsequent years came the KOM system, the EIES computer
conferencing system, New York?s ETM (Electronic Town Meeting) system.
These systems were network systems, many of them containing numerous
flexible user functions, of which voting was an important one.

Almost simultaneously, The Minitel, connected to the network Télétel
(based on the packet switching network Transpac) went into operation
in France. In it?s hey-day Minitel was the world's most frequently
used general-purpose online machine and was in many cases used for
discussion and subsequent online voting.

There were, of course, systems already in place for ?tele-voting?
through terminals connected to telephone lines much like computers
were prior to today?s DSL, Cable and satellite powered systems. Ned
Crosby of Minnesota created one such network in 1973 and assembled
?citizen juries? to decide on issues, and Peter Dienel of Wuppertal,
Germany, organized "Planungszelle" with the same aim. ?Televote?
projects were also inspired by a man named Vincent Campbell of San
Jose, California in 1974 to encourage citizen participation local
planning issues and to record their votes through a telephone
connected system. Using the same concept some years later in 1978, Ted
Becker and Christa Slaton of Hawaii University convinced hundreds of
people to particpate in a deliberation proving that networked
electronic voting was a blossoming reality and a future option, not
only for those who were interested in public opinion but for the
purposes of elections as well.


Now, enough of the history lesson. As per your question, there?s no
accurate way to know for certain of course if some obscure group
didn?t do it first and it has just gone unrecorded, but for history
sake it seems that the first major election process, which fits your
criteria, would be this one:

?In 1996, in the USA, the Reform Party became the first US political
party to use Internet voting (along with telephone and postal mail
voting) to select a Presidential candidate. Over 2000 voters voted via
the Internet.?
HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC VOTING
http://www.eucybervote.org/Reports/KUL-WP2-D4V1-v1.0-01.htm#P323_14632

Followed closely in 1997 by the official implementation of electronic
internet voting in Cologne, Germany.

Again, if this serves to answer your question I would be delighted to
hear from you and officially post it as an answer.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher


INFORMATION SOURCES

Defined above

SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

history "online electronic voting"

history "electronic voting"

history of e-voting

We are happy with tutzdad's answer. Thank you for finding it.  We are
not sure if anything else is required to close this off.
Cheers