https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/08/us-government-internet-voting-department-of-homeland-security
By Kim Zetter
The Guardian
8 May 2020
The Department of Homeland Security has come out strongly against internet
voting in new draft guidelines, breaking with its longstanding reluctance to
formally weigh in on the controversial issue, even after the 2016 Russian
election hacking efforts. The move comes as a number of states push to expand
the use of ballots cast online.
The eight-page document, obtained by the Guardian, pulls no punches in calling
the casting of ballots over the internet a “high-risk” endeavor that would
allow attackers to alter votes and results “at scale” and compromise the
integrity of elections. The guidelines advise states to avoid it altogether or
restrict it to voters who have no other means of casting a ballot.
The document primarily addresses a type of internet voting called electronic
ballot delivery and return – where digital absentee ballots that counties send
to voters overseas via email or a web portal are completed and returned via
email attachment, fax or direct upload – but it essentially applies to all
forms of internet voting. No states currently offer full-on internet voting,
but numerous states allow military and civilian voters abroad to receive and
return ballots electronically, and some of these voters use an internet-based
system that allows them to mark their ballot online before printing it out and
mailing it back or returning it via email or fax.
The DHS considers electronic ballot delivery a low-risk endeavor compared with
electronic ballot return, but both can be compromised. In 2018, a hacker at the
Defcon hacking conference in Las Vegas demonstrated that he could alter a
ballot transmitted via email without detection.
[...]
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