Reform Party to vote online

In another step toward national acceptance of online voting, the Reform Party plans to allow members to cast votes for its presidential nominee online before the party's fourth national convention.

The online voting will be restricted to five or six days to ensure security, as opposed to a month-long mail-in vote period.

Gerald Moan, Reform Party chairman and convention committee chairman, said the decision was made because of the success in Arizona, where about 40,000 Democrats voted online. Arizona Democrats held the first, binding Internet vote in the party's March primary.

"I'm sure there will be glitches, but nothing that will change the vote," Moan said. He guessed that about 200,000 online votes would be cast, a number based on estimates from the Arizona vote. The party will mail 1.5 million ballots.

The party has not worked out details with the contracted site, eBallot. However, Moan said that in each mail-in ballot, a personal identification number would be included with information about online voting. That PIN number could be used at the eBallot site.

The voting dates have not been set, but Moan said it would be in late July to early August, just before the Reform Party's national convention Aug. 10-13 in Long Beach, Calif.