Come March, the Arizona Democratic Party plans to let voters cast their ballots over the Internet in the state's presidential primary. It will be the first time cybervotes will be used in a real, buttons-and-balloons political contest.
Paper ballots will be used as well, but the hope is that cybervoting will appeal to voters too busy to trudge to a polling station to participate. One potential problem: Party officials have not yet supplied details on how they will ensure that some 8-year-old in Flagstaff, Arizona, doesn't vote 5,347 times for Bill Bradley.
But the party seems committed to the idea. It is already hyping the e-primary on its Web site, and pulling it off would be a great way to demonstrate that the party gets the Internet and understands its potential.
If only that were so with self-appointed experts. "The technology to do what they want to do is child's play. The question is, 'Is Bubba ready for it?'" Phil Noble of Charleston, South Carolina, who bills himself as an Internet political consultant, told The Washington Post.