Transcript Internet Voting CORE 139S.pptx

Internet Voting for
Overseas Citizens
By: Revee Needham, Charlie Vallee, Will Loomis
Downfalls of Current Absentee Ballots
● Ballots can be denied for a variety of
reasons: missing signature, signature does
not match records, mailed late etc.
● No chance for do-overs
● “Less likely to be counted, more likely to be
compromised, and more likely to be contested”
● Caltech-MIT study found that absentee ballots were
twice as likely not to be counted
Every vote should count
● “The right to have one’s vote counted is as important
as the act of voting itself” Justice Anderson Minnesota
Supreme Court
● Caltech-Voting Project found absentee failure rate of
almost 20%
● “If 20%, or even 10% of voters, stood in line on
Election day and were turned away there would be a
national outrage”
Instances of Voter Fraud
2005 report, “Absentee ballots remain the largest potential source for fraud”
Alabama woman convicted of voter fraud in Dothan election, 2015
South Alabama jury finds woman guilty of voter fraud , 2015
Mysterious letter stirs suspicions of absentee-ballot fraud, 2015
Absentee ballot fraud incident has Kauai police, elections officials on alert, 2014
State police close voter fraud investigation in Lawrenceburg, 2015
Cedar Rapids man accused of voting three times using absentee ballots, 2014
Fifth of 7 charged with voter fraud pleads guilty in Mississippi, 2014
North Carolina widow fulfills husband's dying wish, is charged with voter fraud, 2014
Ohio Poll Worker Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Absentee Voter Fraud, 2014
Overseas Voters Face Difficulties
By the Stats:
● In 2004, 30% of overseas ballots were too late/didn’t arrive
●
In 2008, roughly 1/2 of overseas troops reported problems with absentee ballots, receiving
and returning them
●
In 2009, the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) act was passed - ballots must
be mailed 45 days prior to election
●
Did it help? No! Military voters that didn’t receive absentee ballots went from 16% in 2008 to
29% in 2010
●
In 2010 overall, both domestic and abroad, 3.9 million ballots never reached voters, and 2.9
million were never returned, 800k were never counted -- failure rate of 21%!
Overseas Voters Face Difficulties
Implications:
-
Battlefield mail delivery is an issue, votes cast by ballots are 2x as likely
not to be counted
-
Presents a problem runoff elections
-> Longer, more expensive campaigns for voters in the United States
-
Presents a problem with local elections, not covered under the
Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act
Benefits of Internet Voting
● Increase voter turnout
● Allows better access to younger voters overseas
● Far less expensive
● Easier, streamlined process, less time/hassle for voters
● Other countries (13) have had success: Switzerland, Canada, Estonia,
United Arab Emirates, etc.
Benefits of Internet Voting
● For those voters without internet access, there could
be kiosk computers established
● Better protection from coercion than traditional
absentee ballots- can vote multiple times
● Standardizes process across precincts
● Reduce voter errors (under/over vote)
● Reliability in getting to election officials
● Online registration system would make registration process easier/less
confusing
Internet Voting Security
● All types of voting technology have inherent risks, no method is 100%
secure, it’s a relative question, which will be better
● The reason corporations have had security issues is because they haven’t
invested in cybersecurity. “In fact, most firms put more resources into
preparing for Y2K than they put into security measures, even though
hacking can shut down a company’s operations and prove very costly to
fix” pg. 80
● “The Riptech Corporation, which issues its Internet Security Threat
Report about the problems encountered by corporations, found that 99
percent of attacks were not major security threats, although they often
caused great inconvenience. The report asserts that severe attacks can
be prevented if firms take the necessary security precautions” p. 81
Internet Voting Security
● Security for Internet Voting is similar to any other voting system: with
ballots, they need to be secured before, during, and after the election
● The threats to Internet voting systems- spoofing, viruses, denial-of-service
attacks, are known threats with known strategies to prevent them.
● “There is no reason to think that Internet voting websites will be any
different than commercial websites- they will come under attack, and they
must be designed to eliminate or mitigate each threat”
● To mitigate denial-of-service attacks, can open up the Internet voting period
for several days
● “One of the reasons why many cyberattacks are successful is that the entity
attacked is not aware of basic flaws in its security and does not monitor the
traffic on its network. Monitoring can identify many of the threats that
currently exist online.” pg. 97
In Conclusion,
For security purposes, can use encryption and digital
signatures. Overall, Internet Security may not be ready to
replace the entire system, but it could greatly benefit this
group of overseas voters. Security will improve if we make
this a priority.
What is more important having a properly secured ballot
or being able to vote?
Sources
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-10-31/news/fl-absentee-ballot-problems-20121030_1_absentee-ballotselection-day-elections-susan-bucher
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/us/politics/as-more-vote-by-mail-faulty-ballots-could-impactelections.html?_r=0
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/colgate/detail.action?docID=10063889
http://blog.brickhousesecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/soldier-vote.jpg
http://static01.nyt.com/images/2012/10/07/us/BALLOT_span/BALLOT-articleLarge.jpg
http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/02/17/alabama-disenfranchises-overseas-military-voters.htm
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6307236/ns/politics-voting_problems/t/federal-ballot-available-online-overseasvoters/#.VT-3VyFViko
http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/overseas-troops-finally-get-fair-shot-at-voting-39497
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/us/politics/as-more-vote-by-mail-faulty-ballots-could-impactelections.html?_r=0
http://archive.navytimes.com/article/20110215/NEWS/102150317/Absentee-voting-issues-still-irk-troops
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/08/08/campaigns-spar-over-military-absentee-ballots.html