U.S. soldiers' overseas votes ripe for fraud

[Mark E. Smith]

Mercury News Sep. 28, 2006

Just weeks before the November election, the Pentagon is struggling
to fix its system for handling the votes of soldiers overseas.

Yet experts in computer security and election technology say the
Pentagon's current attempt to keep those ballots from being rejected
in large numbers, as they have been in past elections, has created a
system that is ripe for fraud.

During the next six weeks, thousands of service members are ex-
pected to fax or e-mail ballots over international communications
networks that are susceptible to interception and tampering, putting
those votes at risk.

"I can't for the life of me figure out how the Defense Department
decided this is the right thing to do," said Doug Jones, an associate
professor of computer science at the University of Iowa.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15627858.htm

[Rose Siding]

1. I'm sure it's all just a big systemic mystery

:eyes:

[LiberalFighter]

2. Voting by email or fax should be illegal

The same standard should be used for citizens that live overseas.

They could just require all communities or counties to create a pdf form of the absentee ballot and have it stored at a central repository for each state. Soldiers serving overseas would then print a copy of the ballot and then mail it in after completing it. They would have to set it up so that the soldier could only print the right ballot and no one else could try to vote illegally. IE don't have soldier's name connected with ssn or any other ID election board decides to use. That way when the ballot is mailed in and the name and id doesn't match it would not be counted.

Only communities and counties that have voters known to be soldiers would be required to follow this requirement. Soldiers would have to have APO or other type of address designated for the service filed with the Election Board or they could not vote absentee.

This procedure would eliminate the need for soldiers to mail a request for an absentee ballot. They would just print their ballot, complete it, and mail it within the deadline. There would be no excuse for their ballot not arriving in time.