I want to begin this dialog by saying that I voted "Enough with the US-Centric polls" in the most recent monastery survey. However, all of the ballot (re)counting in Florida has again raised the question, "when will the electoral process in the United States (and elsewhere for that matter) transcend the need for dead trees to be necessary participants in the process?"

I know that one of the main concerns when computers are introduced into this system is preserving the anonymous vote. What thoughts would my fellow monks have about possible ways to keep the vote anonymous and yet guarantee that each registered voter is able to vote once, and only once? Simply controlling the terminals used for voting would seem an obvious, if not flawed solution. Introducing the internet into the equation would take advantage of some of the "advanced" features of integrating computers into this operation while adding a whole new set of privacy / security issues.

I'm sure that there are many facets of this issue aside from security and anonymity that would also need to be considered. What might some of those be? Potential solutions?

And no, I don't own 27 pairs of sweatpants.