E-voting security: The electoral dialectic gets hot

Peter Neumann, principal scientist at the SRI International Computer Science Laboratory, has been warning about electronic voting systems\´ insecurity for several years. Neumann is still at it, and still alarmed. "I\´ve been fighting this battle for 20 years. What\´s new?" he asks. The question is now rhetorical, for this past December has seen an explosion of public activity around the issue. Neumann\´s wilderness is now jam-packed with a cacophony of voices. However, the looming question is whether the activity signals a willingness to build consensus around a commonly accepted e-voting security apparatus, or is, instead, the preparation for a competing stakeholders\´ titanic clash in the billion-dollar-plus market of e-voting systems.