PHOTO: JENNI GIRTMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
SCIENCE sciencemag.org 25 SEPTEMBER 2020 • VOL 369 ISSUE 6511 1577Many Americans turn to the internet for shopping, banking and—
particularly in the midst of a historic pandemic—schooling and work. Is
voting online next? Although some policy-makers and election officials
are researching or piloting programs to allow voters to cast their ballots
via computer or mobile app, nearly every expert in the field of election
security agrees: Internet voting is not secure, and it is unlikely to be any
time in the foreseeable future.
Current technologies cannot guarantee the “secrecy, security, and
verifiability” of any ballot sent over the internet, leaving online voting
systems vulnerable to vote manipulations and privacy breaches,
according to a comprehensive 2018 report by the National Academies
of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Center
for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues, which gathers and distills
scientific information for policy audiences, is focused on making sure
decision-makers are aware of the latest scientific evidence on the
dangers of online voting.
The EPI center’s previous work on voting technology and security
issues had focused mostly on the accessibility and security concerns
associated with different types of electronic voting systems, as well as
the importance of statistically sound postelection audits to ensure that
results can be verified. Internet voting had been under the center’s um-
brella of “the future of voting,” but with the 2020 election approaching
and interest in online voting increasing, the EPI Center has emphasized
this facet of election security to let decision-makers know that’s where
online voting belongs—in the far future.
“Internet voting is one thing that everyone in election security tends
to agree on,” said Steve Newell, who leads the EPI Center’s voting
technology and security outreach. “There are areas of disagreement,
but there’s really not much on internet voting. Everyone from the ACLU
to The Heritage Foundation to the Brennan Center for Justice is pretty
much on the same page here.”
Experts within the federal government agree. In May, the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and InfrastructureSecurity Agency, the FBI, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and
the National Institute of Standards and Technology issued a joint risk
assessment, warning that allowing voters to submit their completed
ballots over the internet is high-risk.
This unified stance on the dangers of online voting means that the
EPI Center has been able to work with a number of other organizations
and experts to amplify their voices and share the scientific evidence
with policy-makers. This spring, for instance, the EPI Center teamed
with allied organizations to provide evidence on a bill in Puerto Rico
that would have implemented internet voting in the territory as early as
this year and opened it to all voters by 2024.
Building on a range of outreach efforts like letters and webinars,
the EPI Center, along with ACLU Puerto Rico, Verified Voting, the
Brennan Center, and University of Michigan computer scientist
J. Alex Halderman, met virtually in May with the office of Puerto Rico
Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced to share the latest scientific evidence
that shows internet voting is insecure. When the bill arrived on Vázquez
Garced’s desk the next week, she vetoed it.
In a 14 May tweet, Vázquez Garced called for an amended version
of the bill, one that takes into account “las preocupaciones sobre la
seguridad del voto por internet”—“concerns about the security of
online voting.”
“Scientific evidence can be incredibly useful in policy-making, but
too often, it is undervalued and can sometimes be difficult to access or
understand,” said Michael Fernandez, director of the center, during a
recent Q&A with AAAS members. “We make it easier for policy-makers
and other decision-makers to access relevant scientific evidence and
then integrate that evidence into their decision-making process.”
The outreach in Puerto Rico is just a fraction of the work that the
EPI Center has done around the country related to internet voting. In
April, the center joined with other groups and experts to send letters to
governors, secretaries of state, and state election officials letting them
know that internet voting is not secure. The bulk of their efforts are tar-
geted at the local and county level, where many of the decisions related
to elections are made. Since launching its effort on election security
in 2019, the EPI Center has focused on providing information to moreInternet voting remains insecure, says AAAS EPI Center
AAAS NEWS & NOTES
The center has worked with U.S. policy-makers to suggest scientifically sound alternatives
Interest in online voting has risen during the COVID-19 pandemic.By Andrea KorteK8P0V4L