On Thursday April 24th, the Maryland State Board of Elections will be holding a meeting during which they will potentially be approving online voting for Presidential Elections.  The press release regarding this is included below, as is an agenda for Thursday’s meeting:

 

Maryland State Board of Elections Set to Approve Online Voting in Thursday’s State Board of Elections Meeting

System Ripe for Fraud, Experts Warn — Election Integrity Maryland Calls for Immediate Re-Evaluation of Online Voting Implementation to Preserve Honest Elections

 

Rockville, MD  – April 22, 2014 – Election Integrity Maryland (EIM),one of the Mid–Atlantic’s leading election integrity organizations (empowered by True the Vote), announces today that it has urged the Maryland Board of Elections to re-evaluate its stance on online voting procedures and systems in wake of its upcoming State Board Meeting, set for 2pm on April 24, 2014 in Annapolis, MD. At this meeting, the body is set to certify its current Online Ballot Delivery System, which has high potential to open the state’s electoral processes to large-scale error and fraud. Stemming from significant concern from technical and political experts as to the vulnerability of the current system, Election Integrity Maryland calls for an urgent rejection of the vote to certify the Online Ballot Delivery System and subsequent review of its overall online voting systems in a critical effort to preserve freedom and equality in the state’s electoral procedures.

 

In a recent letter to Linda Lamone, State Administrator of the Maryland Board of Elections, Election Integrity Maryland cites several concerns related to the high potential for fraud and inaccuracy in the current “same day registration and voting” system. Chief concerns, such as non-citizens reporting for jury duty, double voting, and deceased voters consistently appearing on the rolls, as well as potential for fraudulent activity, would be amplified by the state’s online voting processes. Recently, two historically-liberal states, Oregon and Washington, successfully voted to block the passage of similar legislation that would enable online voting capabilities and open the states’ electoral systems to large-scale error and fraud. Oregon was also supported in its fight by the League of Women Voters. The testimony collected in these efforts was also delivered to the Maryland Board of Elections for review and consideration prior to Thursday’s meeting and vote.

Maryland has been challenged in the past by voting experts as a result of the significant shortcomings of its current online voting system. In fact, a nationwide, independent panel of experts even went so far as to name it among the ‘most vulnerable’ of all the state systems, and one of the most open to large-scale, automated fraud.

 

Comprised of David Jefferson, computer scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, J. Alex Halderman, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, and Barbara Simons, a retired IBM computer scientist and an expert on electronic voting, the panel also advised the State of Maryland “…to take immediate defensive steps to safeguard the online voter registration system or else shut down the system.”

 

Further expert testimony to support the current call to halt the certification of the Online Ballot Delivery System at vote this week can be found from Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland. In a recent article published in The Baltimore Sun, Greenberger said of the current lack of authentication and oversight in online voting procedures, “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.

 

Recent data compiled by Election Integrity Maryland’s counterparts in both Oregon and California also supports the truth behind these claims. In Oregon, a host of credentialed experts identified numerous reasons why online voting is highly susceptible to a variety of system integrity problems, thus inviting nefarious actions. In California, an audit of current online voter registration systems revealed that 6,080 individuals duplicated their voter registrations, and these duplicates actually remained on the rolls through the 2012 election and through summer-fall of 2013. 113 of the 6,080 suspected duplicates also appear to have voted twice in the 2012 Presidential Election. Almost half of these voters were college-age (18-24).

Elections are typically won or lost by extremely close margins, and glaring errors such as these thus become critically important to national outcomes.

“We strongly urge the Maryland Board of Elections take these significant concerns into account and halt the certification of its Online Ballot Delivery System at this Thursday’s election,” EIM’s President, Cathy Kelleher states. “The current online voting system errors must be re-evaluated and restructured, and such actions are vital to ensuring the future accuracy and freedom of our state’s electoral processes and outcomes. These efforts remain at the epicenter of our continued crusade to ensure free and fair elections in the state of Maryland and across the country.”

 

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

 

The Agenda for the upcoming state vote at 2pm on April 24, 2014 follows. Please note the meeting is open to the public, however request to speak must be submitted prior and approved no later than 5pm EST on April 23, 2014. To request permission to speak or for other agenda-related questions, please contact Nikki Charlson at 4102692843 or by email nikki.charlson@maryland.gov.

 

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

Agenda

State Board Meeting

April 24, 2014 – 2:00 pm

151 West Street, Suite 200

Annapolis, Maryland 21401

 

1. Declaration of Quorum Present

2. Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes

3. Additions to the Agenda

4. Administrator’s Report

5. Assistant Attorney General’s Report

6. Ratification of Precinct Boundary Changes

7. Approval of Proposed Regulations

8. Approval of Campaign Finance Waiver Requests

9. Online Ballot Delivery System – Certification

10. Old Business

11. New Business

12. Disclosure of Campaign Contributions

13. Confirm Next Meeting Date & State Certification of Primary Election

14. Closed Session

15. Adjournment

 

Closed Meeting:  Part of the meeting may be closed in accordance with Open Meetings Act procedures.

 

Public Participation:  Members of the public may address the Board on any item on this agenda.  Pursuant to §3.2B of the Board’s bylaws, public participation at a meeting must be prescheduled and preapproved by the Chairman. To request approval to speak at a board meeting, contact Nikki Charlson at 4102692843 or by email nikki.charlson@maryland.gov no later than 5 pm the day before the meeting.