With submitted public opinion running heavily against the idea, the Senate last week voted to pass a bill to the House that proposes studying the feasibility of Internet voting in Oregon. Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Hillsboro, carried Senate Bill 1515 and told the chamber that he’d been advised that the Secretary of State’s office had said it could absorb a study under the current budget, “so cost wouldn’t be an issue,” Starr said. But a half-dozen Oregonians commenting in earlier committee hearings voiced strong opposition to online voting for a variety of reasons. Sam Croskell of Portland wrote that the state’s track record with Cover Oregon’s website and the recent security breach at the Secretary of State’s office were sufficient proof that the risks associated with online voting weren’t worth taking.
Albany resident Wendy Frome also asked the senators not to move SB 1515 forward.
“It would be wasting taxpayer funds to study Internet voting. We need to be working to make our elections more secure, not spending money to study less-secure methods of voting,” Frome said.
And Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, told his colleagues on the Senate floor that he was “vigorously opposed” to online voting.
Full Article: Proposal to study online vote advances | Statesman Journal | statesmanjournal.com.