New Jersey residents displaced by last week’s superstorm can vote by e-mail like overseas residents – but with a crucial difference that has drawn objections from voting security experts. Like 30 other states, New Jersey allows overseas voters and military voters to return their ballots electronically via e-mail. But only New Jersey also requires voters to mail in a paper version. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno announced Saturday that New Jersey residents could vote by e-mail under the state’s overseas voter law – but didn’t say they must send in paper backup.
“Internet voting is inherently insecure … and e-mail voting is the most insecure form of Internet voting. It’s quite easy to fake an e-mail return address,” says Andrew Appel, a Princeton University computer science professor. “E-mail voting is completely untrustworthy and insecure unless it’s backed up by a paper ballot signed by the voter.”
After Superstorm Sandy, New Jersey extended the deadline to request an absentee ballot. It will also allow residents to cast provisional ballots at any polling place if they can’t get to their usual polling place or if it is not functioning.
In New York, where polling places have also been moved due to the storm, state Board of Elections co-chairman Doug Kellner said e-mail voting was rejected because of its vulnerability to fraud. “They’re hackable and they’re not verifiable.”
Full Article: New Jersey’s e-mail vote raises security concerns.