- While reliable online elections will likely never be a reality for all voters, most states allow voters in the military and those living abroad to vote remotely.
- In 2020, 32 states will allow some or all overseas and military voters to return their ballots digitally via fax, email, and in some states through an online portal.
- Electronic transmission may give military voters serving in remote areas with infrequent mail delivery a better chance of having their votes counted, but it also raises numerous security concerns.
- One expert told Business Insider that broadcasting online ballots leaves voters little opportunity to verify that their decisions have been counted correctly and also increases the risk of malware attacks on election officials.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Experts say that in all probability there will never be reliable online voting for everyone. But in 2020, many states are giving military and overseas voters the ability to submit their absentee ballots online.
United States military personnel and their families, diplomats and private citizens living abroad all have the right to vote absentee in federal elections under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), a law first introduced in the United States 1980s and beyond was expanded with the MOVE Act, passed by Congress in 2009.
Voters covered by UOCAVA have the ability to request a ballot for each election in a given year, have that ballot mailed to them no later than 45 days before the election, have it returned postage paid, and also have access to a Federal Letter-In Mail Vote they can fill out , if they do not receive the requested ballot in time.
And while all voters are required to mail their ballots by Election Day, most states are also giving foreign and military voters extra time for their ballots to arrive and be counted after the general election.
Every state allows foreign and military voters to return their ballots through the mail, and the majority also offer the option to do so digitally. According to the Overseas Vote Foundation, in 2020, 32 states will allow voters covered by the UOCAVA to return their ballots via fax, email, and in some states through an online portal.
Some states, such as Iowa, Missouri, and Texas, limit electronic return options to military service members stationed in a hostile fire zone or those who are entitled to imminent danger pay.
Many military voters, and particularly those deployed in remote locations without reliable access to the mail service, face challenges accessing ballots and ensuring their vote is counted.
Military voters have routinely voted at much lower levels than the general US electorate as a whole, Axios reported in 2019.
While nearly 50% of the eligible US voting population voted in the 2018 midterm elections – a record for a modern midterm election – only 31% of active military voters cast their ballots this year.
Military voters are also much more likely to have their absentee ballots rejected than domestic voters who vote by mail. The 2016 Electoral Administration and Polling Survey conducted by the U.S. Electoral Assistance Commission found that nationally, 3% of returned absentee ballots were rejected by military and foreign voters, compared to 1% of domestic voters.
Of the rejected UOCAVA ballots, nearly half were disqualified for arriving after the state deadline, and about 16% were rejected because of problems with voters’ signatures. Online voting can help mitigate both of these problems.
Some states require military personnel and foreign voters to print, hand-sign, and scan back their ballots to return in PDF form to their polling officials via email or through an online portal, while a few of those voters require tagging, electronic Sign and return their ballots in full over the Internet.
Other states, such as Hawaii and Louisiana, also offer very limited online ballot return options for domestic voters with disabilities.
However, experts warn that while the expansion of online voting transmission could result in fewer ballots being rejected for late arrival, it also has some significant shortcomings in election integrity and cybersecurity.
David Levine, a former election administrator and election integrity fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, told Business Insider that submitting online ballots not only requires a voter to essentially waive their right to a secret ballot, it often entails them nor is there any way to be sure that their selection was recorded correctly.
“One of the biggest concerns about broadcasting online ballots is that a voter can’t confirm their choice,” Levine said. “There are also concerns about whether election officials can validate voter results and how election officials can verify that there is something between the time the voter fills out the ballot and then submits it electronically and the time election officials receive it happened or not.”
In contrast, voters who vote by mail or vote in person with a paper ballot, ballot marker, or electronic voting machine with direct recording and paper trail all have an opportunity to ensure their voting decisions were accurately recorded.
Levine also noted that in addition to concerns that ballots remain secure even while transmitted online, election officials receiving ballots via email leave them vulnerable
ransomware
Attacks delivered by
phishing
emails.
“The dangers of
malware
, ransomware and spear phishing are well known,” Levine said. “Most people would never knowingly click on an attachment or link in an email sent by someone unknown to them, but that’s exactly what many public officials are required to do by election.” This practice can put the voting infrastructure at risk and make the secrecy of the vote vulnerable.”
Following foreign interference and attempted hacking of state voting systems dating back to Russia in 2016, states have reassessed their online voting options.
West Virginia tested a blockchain-based mobile voting app for military voters to mark and submit their ballots for the 2018 election entirely from their phone, but won’t stop using the technology in 2020, according to studies by the Department of Homeland Security and MIT offer outstanding vulnerabilities with the technology, CoinDesk reported.
Levine said that the consensus among experts so far is that blockchain does not adequately address many of the existing security issues associated with online voting.
“There are a number of potential vulnerabilities when you talk about internet voting: malware, denial-of-service attacks, protection and anonymization of results, and a meaningful voter-verified paper record,” he said. “Blockchain has the ability to be helpful from a voter registration perspective, but when it comes to internet voting itself, it doesn’t address those risks and doesn’t help mitigate those risks.”
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