The Pentagon said it has scrapped its programme to allow US troops and other Americans overseas to vote through the Internet because the system is vulnerable to computer hackers.
The Pentagon heeded the advice of cyber-security experts who urged in a January 21st report the program be abandoned because it was impossible to create a voting system with current personal computers and the Internet that would stop hackers or terrorists from tampering with election results.
The $22 million Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, or SERVE, program was supposed to allow 100,000 US troops and civilians overseas to cast votes through the Internet during this presidential election year.
Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz wrote a memo on January 30th saying the Pentagon "will not be using the SERVE Internet voting project in view of the inability to assure legitimacy of votes . . . which thereby brings into doubt the integrity of election results".
Experts said the system could be penetrated by hackers who could change votes or gather information about users.
Pentagon officials had defended the system and said enhanced security procedures had been introduced.