2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Naive analysis of the risks of internet voting, September 12, 2011
This review is from: Internet Voting Now! Here's How. Here's Why - So You Can Kiss Citizens United Goodbye! (Kindle Edition)
The author utterly fails to address fundamental problems with internet voting. The key principle should be that individual voters and the public at large should be assured that the vote is actually counted as the voter intended. This is simply impossible given the current architecture of the internet.
The "little known Original Intentions of our Constitution's Framers for presidential elections" entirely ignores that at the time the Constitution was adopted, voters attended public meetings to cast their votes, allowing for debate and interaction that cannot be realistically duplicated with internet voting.
The author's technical analysis is shallow and deeply flawed.
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great resource!, August 17, 2011
This review is from: Internet Voting Now! Here's How. Here's Why - So You Can Kiss Citizens United Goodbye! (Kindle Edition)
Unlike some reviewers of Dr. Kelleher's book, I have actually read the entire book. If you read even the preview pages of this book, offered on Amazon for free, you can quickly realize that most of the other reviewers probably didn't read a word of this book. Their over-the-top rebukes of the book are filled with standard cut-and-paste arguments.
I will state at the outset of this book review that I am an advocate for online voting. I judged this book based on how well I feel it makes the case for online voting, and how strongly he backs up his contentions. I will leave it for all readers of this review to decide if my review is objective enough. The readers that count, however, are the average people looking for information about a very important issue, not the professional "nay-sayers".
I feel that this book can be divided into thirds for the purpose of review. The first third of the book, which I found to be the strongest section, begins to lay out the history of our voting system, and does an extremely good job of addressing concerns about the security of online voting. He also addresses head-on the existence and background of some of the professional skeptics of online voting.(Some of these people, no doubt, are those who will post "reviews" of books like this.)
The goal of any good non-fiction book should be to inform. I learned a great deal about the entire history of online voting from the beginning of this book.
I found the chapters in the book that are devoted to SERVE (An online voting system already developed)to be particularly compelling. Dr. Kelleher does a great job of shining a light on the story of an online voting system that was created and trialed a decade ago, and the people who were responsible for it's demise. This section of the book has a real "Who killed the online voting system?" murder mystery feel to it.
The middle third of the book I found to be a little more problematic. One major premise of Dr. Kelleher's case for online voting is that the political system in the United States is tainted by the two political parties. He feels strongly that we should have an election system free of parties, and lays out in great depth his plan for Presidential elections that requires online voting to be successful. When I say "in depth" I am most certainly not exaggerating. He explains his very elaborate plan, including charts for debating schedules and elections.
Also in the middle section of the book, Dr. Kelleher goes into an in-depth analysis of our Constitutional history, focusing mostly on what the founding fathers' intentions were with regard to who votes and who we vote for. I am somewhat of a history buff, so I personally found this section of the book quite interesting. I also don't dispute any of the historical claims Dr. Kelleher makes.
My concern with the middle of the book is that I fear it waters down the book's focus, taking the readers attention away from the very strong case made for online voting in the beginning of the book. It seems to me that Dr. Kelleher spends a lot of pages showing his readers that he is not partisan. In fact, he has great distaste for both parties. He cites many examples of actions by past Presidents of both parties that he feels have been detrimental to our democracy.
I don't doubt Dr. Kelleher's political beliefs. He seems quite sincere in his nonpartisan approach. However, I repeat that as an advocate for online voting I am judging this book on the job it does in furthering that goal. I am concerned that the middle of this book can "lose" the reader. Sections of the book that might be interesting to history buffs may, nonetheless, stray from the central point.
Online voting can drastically change our political system for the better simply by being implemented as a voting choice for all voters. Once everyone begins to vote online, and more and more citizens(particularly young people) vote, we will see dramatic changes in our political system. This does not require institutional changes of any kind in our government or political system. No constitutional amendments are required.
The last section of the book is, like the first, very powerful in it's case for online voting. It "brings it all home" as a closing section of a book should.
Overall, the book is a good read and I found it compelling. In particular, I finished the book feeling more optimistic about the prospects of online voting becoming a reality in this country. The book is painstakingly footnoted, which makes it a fantastic resource on the subject. However, I do also feel this book would be stronger if it were shorter. A lot of the middle section of this book would be better suited, I believe, to be the topic of a second book. There is enough material here for two books, and I feel the main book would be less watered-down regarding this extremely important subject.
If you are a citizen who wants to learn about the background and potential future of online voting to help inform you about the subject then read this book. You won't regret it. If you are not an average citizen, but someone who's job or goal is to trash the very concept of online voting and trash Dr. Kelleher any way that you can, then I suppose you don't have to read it. You can just rant in a review, which offers the potential reader nothing of value.
Cyber The Vote
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9 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Internet Voting Now!, April 16, 2011
This review is from: Internet Voting Now! Here's How. Here's Why - So You Can Kiss Citizens United Goodbye! (Kindle Edition)
Bill Kelleher's name has been popping up all over the place, insisting that Internet Voting is perfectly safe. Computer scientists, almost unanimously, believe that the author is in way over his head and really "doesn't get it". The fact is that Internet voting is impossible to protect from hackers, foreign or domestic, and I certainly wouldn't recommend this book to anyone; why waste your time and money on this mistaken (maybe intentional, maybe accidental) author? I'd check out the real experts, such as Mark Crispin Miller, Greg Palast, David Jefferson, Barbara Simons, Brad Friedman, Bob Fitrakis, and the list goes on.
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