Election Integrity Maryland will be addressing the MD State Board of Elections on July 10  to continue its call for re-evaluation of online voting implementation to preserve fair elections and ensure that the public’s voice is heard.  You can read the press release around this event below:

 

Maryland State Board of Elections Continues Attempts to Implement Online Ballot Delivery System, Despite Countless Warnings of Security, Fraud Vulnerability and Failure to Address Public’s Concerns

Election Integrity Maryland to Address the State Board of Elections on July 10  to Continue its Call for Re-Evaluation of Online Voting Implementation to Preserve Fair Elections, Ensure the Public’s Voice is Heard

 

Rockville, MD  – July 9, 2014 – Election Integrity Maryland (EIM), one of the Mid–Atlantic’s leading election integrity organizations, today re-affirms its concerns for the future of free and fair elections across Maryland, should the Online Ballot Delivery system be allowed to move forward.  EIM’s President, Cathy Kelleher, will address the State Board of Elections to continue to voice its opposition to the system, and urge the body to heed the best interest of the voting public, at its upcoming State Board Meeting, set for 2pm on July 10, 2014 in Annapolis, MD.

Over the past several months, Maryland’s Online Ballot Delivery System has come under the microscope for its alarmingly high vulnerability to large-scale error and fraud. EIM has continued to lead the charge for an in-depth review and rejection of Maryland’s overall online voting systems in a critical effort to preserve freedom and equality in the state’s electoral procedures. The organization’s efforts successfully blocked the vote to certify the online voting system at a Board Meeting held in April, 2014.

Significant concern for the safety and security of the state’s online voting systems has continued to be raised, however much of the data that has been uncovered around the functionality and testing of these systems and their vulnerabilities have been restricted to closed sessions and not made clear to the public.

Several independent Internet experts and University of Maryland law professor, Michael Greenberger, echo EIM’s continued urging for transparency and integrity in Maryland’s voting system. Greenberger has specifically pointed to the overall lack of authentication and oversight in online voting procedures, particularly in the request and delivery of absentee ballots. He has said, “experts say there is no way to know for certain that the person requesting the absentee ballot is the one filling it out and mailing it in…the identification system currently in place is not an effective way to authenticate a voter; in fact, it’s vulnerable to fraud.”  Greenberger instead advocates for a reversion to the ‘old-school’ hard-copy, brick and mortar process to cut down on potential for interception and fraud.

The State Board of Elections’ Deputy Election Administrator, Nikki Charlson, has also echoed these concerns that significant security vulnerabilities may exist in front end of the current system, the area ripest for fraudulent activity. Charlson was quoted in a recent article in The Maryland Reporter as saying, “We might not be able to prevent someone who has illegally obtained information [from entering the system].” Recent data compiled by EIM and the Virginia Voters Alliance confirmed 164 cases of duplicate voting between Virginia and Maryland in 2012, along with at least 44,000 individuals found to be registered concurrently in both states. These staggering findings, uncovered by a preliminary effort to simply ‘scratch the surface’ of this alarming issue, underscore the significant opportunity that currently exists largely as a result of the online voting systems, to commit fraud and exert negative impacts on the integrity of the states’ electoral processes which cannot be ignored.

At its next Board Meeting on July 10, 2014, the State Board of Elections will re-open the discussion on the certification of the Online Ballot Delivery system, in an effort to continue to push the initiative through for approval regardless of the fact that these very clear, factual issues and countless concern from independent experts still remain to be properly addressed. The Board of Elections is planning to use recent complaints filed by the National Federation of the Blind on behalf of a number of blind and disabled voters, who portend that their rights to vote privately and independently were obstructed, as rationale for approval of these flawed online voting systems.

This latest action highlights the Board of Elections’ continued failure to address and correct what have been found to be significant, measurable flaws in the current system that carry serious ramifications for the public’s electoral freedoms. Efforts by the Board of Elections to use these latest complaints by disabled voters to use potential ADA violation legislation as an engine to push the online voting system through ignores a number of key facts, however, that the state has issued to continually promote accessibility and equality in its voting procedures. Early voting, along with additional handicapped-accessible polling locations and extended time periods to cast votes were passed by Maryland’s General Assembly in 2014 to make it easier for disabled voters to get to the polls and ensure the presence of their voice in the state’s electoral processes.

Clearly  then, this legislation is far from sufficient rationale to necessitate a passage of online voting systems that represent flagrant security concerns and vulnerabilities that actually serve to obstruct the public’s voting freedoms, instead of expand them.

“Casting a vote is every U.S. citizen’s legal right and privilege,” EIM’s President, Cathy Kelleher states. “It is essential now more than ever that we take a hard look at the security of our voting systems, as inviting fraud into our electoral processes has the potential to exert significant and intensely damaging effects on our election outcomes, as well as the voting public’s confidence in the availability of a free and fair electoral system that is essential to our rights as Americans. I will be present at the Board Meeting on July 10 to fight for free and fair elections and to continue to ensure that the public’s voice is heard.”

Election Integrity Maryland is available for immediate comment to expand on these issues and related activities affecting integrity in the electoral process.

 

About Election Integrity Maryland (EIM)

Election Integrity Maryland (EIM) is a non-partisan, non-profit citizen initiative dedicated to upholding free and fair elections. A 501 (c)(4) organization, EIM exists to promote integrity throughout the voting process in Maryland, thereby enhancing the public’s confidence in its voting franchise in local, state and federal elections. EIM seeks to support the efforts of Maryland’s various Boards of Elections in their effort to maintain voter integrity, as well as the interests of Maryland voters. For more information about EIM, please visit: www.ElectionIntegrityMaryland.com