than 1,000 election officials in 772 counties in 13 states, said Kathryn
McGrath, the center’s communications director.
In Georgia, for instance, when DeKalb County’s council passed a
resolution in July to research and expand access to online voting, the
EPI Center reached out to the county commissioners to share the
evidence that online voting is insecure, Newell said.
“This is just such a wonderful manifestation of the vision of the EPI
Center and what it was meant to do—providing that help to policy-
makers and bringing evidence-based decision-making into policy,”
said Sudip Parikh, CEO of AAAS and executive publisher of the Science
family of journals.
The EPI Center team recognizes that policy-makers and election
officials have many concerns to balance, Newell added. Along with
election security, decision-makers are mindful of a host of other is-
sues, such as funding and equitable access.
“There are genuine concerns about making sure that everyone
has access to the ballot—It’s incredibly important,” said Newell.
“We’ve seen in America disparities in voting going back a very long
way. Those are real concerns we need to address, but internet vot-
ing unfortunately really isn’t the solution to them.” In fact, he said,
disparities and equity issues could be exacerbated by implementing
widespread online voting in a digitally divided country.
Accordingly, the EPI Center makes sure that policy-makers and
election officials are aware of alternative options that address some
of the concerns that are driving interest in internet voting—and
what the science says about those options. This summer, the center
coauthored a report with the nonprofit Free Speech for People,
“Leveraging Electronic Balloting Options Safely and Securely Dur-
ing the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which recommends ways for jurisdic-
tions to safely send blank ballots to voters through the internet.
Remote ballot marking systems, for instance, allow voters to print
their ballot, mark their choice by hand with a pen, and send the
completed ballot in via the mail or deposit it in a dropbox. Voters
with disabilities who are unable to mark a ballot by hand can mark
their ballot electronically, then print and submit it. Either way, these
options avoid the most significant security challenges of internet
voting, which occur when voters submit their choices through any
internet-connected device.
The EPI Center is also recommending that jurisdictions prepare
to expand access to two scientifically sound alternatives to internet
voting: mail-in ballots and early voting, both of which allow voters to
avoid close contact with large groups of other voters on Election Day.
“There’s a lot of conversation around mail-in ballots, but there’s still
essentially no evidence to actually support them being controversial,”
said Newell. “The FBI recently stated that there is no organized fraud in
vote by mail, and this is supported by the existing evidence.”
The EPI Center’s outreach about the insecurity of internet voting
and the benefits of alternative voting options is bolstered by new re-
search all the time. They are making sure decision-makers know that
the evidence shows that mail-in ballots confer no partisan advantage
on either Democrats or Republicans, as found in a study published
26 August in Science Advances.
“Who’s more excited about technological progress than AAAS, an
organization of scientists?” said Newell. “Unfortunately, the science
shows that the technology for online voting is not where it needs to be.”AAAS NEWS & NOTES
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