[EL] questions about proposed Michigan military voting bill...

[Joseph Lorenzo Hall]

In Jocelyn Benson's op-ed she says she is working with Michigan
legislators to enact the Military Voter Protection Package and then
more specifically says, "Our package will also make it easier for
service members to return their completed ballots in a safe and secure
manner, and will ensure that their votes are counted." The op-ed
doesn't appear to have enough space to go into specific details of the
legislation.

However, this press release from the MI Democratic Party outlines more
specifics of the proposed reforms and unfortunately, pertaining to the
quote above, the press release says the package will "Provide for the
electronic return of ballots for overseas service members.":

http://www.michigandems.com/2012/08/military-families-vets-call-for-reforms-to-make-it-easier-for-service-members-to-vote/

Nothing about electronic return of voted ballots is safe and secure.
Email, fax or internet-mediated return of voted ballots is a very bad
idea (for a quick primer, see:
http://blog.verifiedvoting.org/2011/11/02/1460 ).

As someone who has participated in state-level hacking projects and
was involved in the DC pilot hack in 2010, I really hope this part of
an otherwise well-meaning bill is changed to provide expedited return
(FedEx, etc.) of physical ballots, in conjunction with the provision
to allow postmarked-on-election-day ballots to be counted for this
constituency.

best, Joe

On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 10:59 AM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:
>
> “Commentary: Protect votes of servicemen”
>
> Posted on August 13, 2012 10:36 pm by Rick Hasen
>
> Jocelyn Benson in the Detroit News: “When Michigan’s sons and daughters, husbands and wives put aside their safety to protect ours and serve in the military, it’s our responsibility to ensure that they can exercise their right to vote. Dealing with a deployment is stressful and nerve-wracking for any military family. I know — I am an army wife, and my husband is currently serving in Afghanistan. As we juggle all of the responsibilities of military life, the last thing our service members and their families need is an added struggle of trying to get their ballots in time to vote.”
>
> Posted in military voting | Comments Off


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Joseph Lorenzo Hall
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Media, Culture and Communication
New York University
https://josephhall.org/