META group models an Internet-based "E-vote system

Today, Feb 2001

Researchers have found that an On-Line voting system could actually cut the cost per voter in half. META calculates the processing power required to handle the load.

As the United States weighs the need for faster, more accurate ways to count votes in elections, META Group estimates it will cost between $175 million and $250 million to create and deploy a national Internet-- based voting system, according to recently released research findings. The system would eliminate voting for more than one candidate and ensure instantaneous, accurate counting, the two key issues in the 36-day standoff following the Presidential election.

META estimates that a national Web-based system would require 150 individual Web sites using a distributed computing method to handle the Web traffic generated by more than 204 million eligible US voters. Voters would be able to cast their ballots online - at home, in the office, or at community polling locations. Voters would download approximately 10 pages of data as they completed ballots within a 15-hour voting period.

META Group estimates that 13,628,134 voters would cast their ballots each hour during Election Day, visiting 136,281,336 Internet pages per hour. To handle this load, the 150 sites would need to be outfitted with 300 dual-CPU Web servers, 450 four-CPU application servers, and 450 four-CPU database servers.

"An online voting system is inevitable as Internet culture grows and evolves," said Anthony Bradley, vice president and general manager at META Group. "Through the use of emerging technologies such as wireless computing and computer telephony integration, we may one day cast our ballots via cellular phones, pagers and handheld computers or PalmPilots."

In conjunction with its Electronic Government Strategies service, META Group researched development, implementation, and operational costs for an Internet-based voting system using its Predictive Cost Modeling (PCM) tool. META Group's PCM tool uses scenario-planning methodology to ascertain key "cost drivers" and then predicts the costs across hardware, software and personnel resources.

Significant findings include:

* Web page traffic volume will determine the online system's architecture.

*It will cost $1.23 per voter to develop and implement an online voting system, realizing significant cost savings over current per-voter expenditures.

* Costs can be reduced by as much a 50% if the US government leverages its own existing hardware systems.

* Forty percent of costs are driven by the need to manage more than 200 million named user accounts and provide them with proper security.

* The 15-hour voting window means that the sites can never go down, creating a cost-increase of more than 30%.

* Total data volume for the online voting system would be 204 gigabytes.

Clearly, the switch to Internetbased voting would be a costly and challenging undertaking, but after the experiences of November and December, more than a few Americans might feel that it would be well worth it!