West Virginia set to allow smartphone voting for those serving overseas

[Swordsmyth]

West Virginia plans to allow voters serving overseas in the military to cast their midterm election ballots via a smartphone app this November.
The first-ever mobile phone voting app for federal elections uses a person’s registered photo from their government-issued identification and submits a video of their face, CNN reported Monday.
Voatz, the Boston-based company that developed the app the state, uses facial recognition software to compare the government ID with the selfie-style video to ensure it is the same person.

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner told the network that the technology has been tested in smaller private elections. Warner said they tested the app in two counties during a primary earlier this year and it was successful.


"There is nobody that deserves the right to vote any more than the guys that are out there, and the women that are out there, putting their lives on the line for us," Warner told CNN.
Each county will have the final decision on using the app, said Michael L. Queen, Warner's deputy chief of staff.
It is not a replacement for traditional voting methods and troops will still be allowed to cast paper absentee ballots, Warner said.
The move comes amid national security concerns following Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
U.S. intelligence officials have said Russia is continuing that campaign into this year’s midterms.
"In regards to Russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States," Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said at the White House last week.
Joseph Lorenzo Hall, the chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, told CNN that mobile voting “is a horrific idea.”
”It's internet voting on people's horribly secured devices, over our horrible networks, to servers that are very difficult to secure without a physical paper record of the vote,” Hall said.
Warner and Voatz both insist that the app is secure.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign...uring-midterms

[timosman]

Great idea!

[timosman]

[TheCount]

Absentee voters can already vote via email in many states.

[EBounding]

Voting Is The Most Important Thing

[oyarde]

I voted the years I was overseas . I just mailed it .

[Swordsmyth]

Absentee voters can already vote via email in many states.

That needs to be outlawed.

[Swordsmyth]

Top computer researchers gave a startling presentation recently about how to intercept and switch votes on emailed ballots, but officials in the 30 or so states said the ease with which votes could be changed wouldn’t alter their plans to continue offering electronic voting in some fashion.
Two states — Washington and Alaska — have ended their statewide online voting systems.
The developments, amid mounting fears that Russians or others will try to hack the 2018 midterm elections, could heighten pressure on officials on other U.S. states to reconsider their commitment to online voting despite repeated admonitions from cybersecurity experts.
But a McClatchy survey of election officials in a number of states that permit military and overseas voters to send in ballots by email or fax — including Alabama, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas — produced no immediate signs that any will budge on the issue. Some chief election officers are handcuffed from making changes, even in the name of security, by state laws permitting email and fax voting.

More at: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nat...t=more_stories

[timosman]

Top computer researchers gave a startling presentation recently about how to intercept and switch votes on emailed ballots, but officials in the 30 or so states said the ease with which votes could be changed wouldn’t alter their plans to continue offering electronic voting in some fashion.

[Swordsmyth]

For the first time in our nation's history, voters in 24 counties in W. Virginia will be able to vote using their mobile phones. While some are hailing the decision because it will make voting easier for members of the military deployed overseas, experts are warning of possible security breaches.
"After researching previously available options, the Secretary’s team identified that most electronic ballot delivery technology required access to a desktop computer, printer and scanner, all of which present significant barriers to overseas voters, especially those in combat zones or engaged in covert operations," the W. Virginia Secretary of State's office explained in a press release this week. The state is partnering with a Boston, Massachusetts-based company called Voatz, Inc.


"Voatz has developed a secure mobile voting application that allows voters to receive, vote, and return their ballots electronically," the press release claims. "The application also utilizes blockchain technology to store electronically submitted ballots until election night, and requires a heightened standard of identity verification for users than traditional absentee ballot processes. This project is unprecedented in United States history, being the first mobile voting application and first use of blockchain technology in a federal election."
During the state's primary election in May, a pilot was conducted in two W. Virginia counties with voters in six different countries utilizing the technology. "Post-election security audits by several independent and widely respected technology auditing companies showed that the technology provided a secure platform for voting and an alternative to the traditional absentee paper ballot," the Secretary of State's office declared. "Voatz’s app, which also utilizes biometric facial recognition software and thumbprint safeguards to ensure the identity of the voter, increased the confidence of the auditors. In short, the nation’s first mobile voting app test pilot was a success."
In order to use the mobile technology, users register with Voatz by taking a picture of their government ID and also a selfie video of their face. Voatz then uses facial recognition software that (they claim) can verify the voter's identity. Once approved, voters can cast their ballots using Voatz's app. After the vote is cast it is added to the blockchain, a digital ledger of sorts, popularized by digital currencies such as Bitcoin.


"Because blockchain is a distributed ledger of transactions, military mobile votes become immutable and tamper-proof once recorded," says Voatz.
The state of W. Virginia admits that there are "substantial" security concerns, but explained that Voatz will be utilizing "federal standards for software development, regular maintenance and security upgrades, in-depth penetration testing, source code auditing and audits of the system’s cloud infrastructure. After surpassing those requirements, the pilot moved forward."
Federal standards? That alone should raise red flags.
A report from Thales eSecurity points out that 71 percent of federal agencies have experienced data breaches. Their 2018 "Data Threat Report" concluded that "federal agencies are experiencing a 'perfect storm" around data that is putting agency secrets, and the private data of over 330 million citizens, at risk."
Research Principal Analyst Garrett Bekker posited that "the U.S. federal sector has experienced a higher rate of breaches in the past year than any other sector."


A report at Spiegel Online last month warned of a wide variety of security concerns with mobile voting:

• To start with, the infrastructure that Voatz uses cannot be secured -- i.e., the voters' smartphones and the networks used to transfer the data.
• Voatz is also sketchy on details relating to its use of blockchain technology, making it unclear whether it offers a specific advantage over standard databases. "With all the servers in the custody of the vendor, a dishonest vendor could do anything they want to the results," warned Marian K. Schneider, president of the U.S. advocacy group Verified Voting.
• Voatz says it has commissioned third-party firms for extensive security audits. But information about these security firms on Voatz's website has been repeatedly revised in recent days, apparently in response to queries from the media.
• There are no indications that a technical inspection by state authorities took place either. Voatz, at the very least, has made no claims to that effect. If that didn't happen, it would mean that the public authorities aren't even aware of what, exactly, is behind Voatz's technology.
• Internal Voatz code has popped up in at least two places on the platform Github, a mass database where code is uploaded and widely shared. The company claims it was test code unrelated to the real system. But details in the code raise concerns that Voatz doesn't always attach the utmost importance to common security practices.

More at: https://pjmedia.com/election/w-virgi...rity-concerns/

[nobody's_hero]

I recall a rather fishy election where a republican in SW Georgia was on the verge of ousting the long-serving Democrat Sanford Bishop and miraculously after the absentee ballots (which were not proportional to the regular ballot results as you might expect them to be) were cast, the final count flipped to support the incumbent. I don't trust absentee ballots worth a damn, but I understand some folks (like the military) can't just come home and vote in-person.

If anything we should be trying to find ways to make voting harder. I say that jokingly.











ok . . . somewhat jokingly.