Kansas State Tries Internet Election

More than 19,000 students at Kansas State University had a chance to cast online ballots in mid-March to elect their student body government.

In three days of voting, students from the main campus and the Salina, Kan., campus could vote remotely from any computer with Internet access. The Internet voting technology was provided by Bellevue, Wash.-based Internet voting company VoteHere.net.

"University students use computers on a daily basis and will find voting over the Internet easier to fit into their hectic schedules," said Travis Morgan, KSU's elections chairman.

The company's technology interfaced with the school's Access Technology System, which was used to authenticate students. Authenticated voters were then routed to the ballot page at VoteHere.net. The custom ballot page included candidates from all the student body offices, senate and council seats.

After students voted, their ballots were encrypted and transmitted via the Internet to VoteHere.net's secure election center, where they were decrypted and tallied.