Free Speech For People works in partnership with a broad coalition of democracy and civil rights organizations to oppose the adoption of online voting.

The Department of Homeland Security, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, and countless computer security experts have rejected online voting as unacceptably insecure for public government elections because of the inherent, insoluble security risks, the continued cyber threats to elections, and other election interference activities.

Nevertheless, Internet voting systems companies have increased their lobbying efforts to pass laws to permit or expand online voting to increase the market for their insecure products in states across the country. This national effort necessitates a counter-campaign to protect our elections and prevent the expansion of online voting.

Advancing key election security, like eliminating Internet voting, has been complicated by the Big Lie and false claims of compromised voting systems. As stated by Susan Greenhalgh, Senior Advisor on Election Security for Free Speech For People, and J. Alex Halderman, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, in a recent oped for Newsweek, “Plenty has been written about how the Big Lie is corroding public trust and tearing at the fabric of our democracy. But in addition to these obvious harms, Trump’ insidious disinformation is also inhibiting legitimate and necessary election security reforms.”

Frequently Asked Questions About Internet Voting

Featured: Preventing the Adoption of Internet Voting in California

California State CapitolFree Speech For People joined with allied organizations to successfully defeat a bill that would expand voting over the internet in California. SB 1480,  which was pending for hearing before the California Assembly Elections Committee, was pulled from the schedule by the bill sponsor, California State Senator, Steve Glazer. This action followed significant coordination and outreach by a coalition of more than thirty citizen advocacy organizations, led by Free Speech For People and organized by the LA County Voters’ Action Coalition, which included a detailed letter to California legislators in April, a public statement from the coalition in June, and a letter from computer security experts strongly opposing the bill.

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Other Initiatives

VICTORY! CHALLENGING INTERNET VOTING IN SAN FRANCISCO

On November 16, 2021, we joined with other national voting rights organizations to issue a letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors opposing a pending contract to implement internet voting for the county, though California state law prohibits internet voting. Following the receipt of our letter and outreach from the San Francisco Elections Commissions, the internet voting contract did not move forward.

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LETTER TO SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE ABOUT INTERNET VOTING

On October 14, 2021, we issued a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee regarding concerns that absentee ballots submitted online, as made possible by the National Defense Authorization Act, are vulnerable to privacy violations and hacking. Following receipt of the letter, funding provided by the Act was allocated to develop studies to review the security of internet voting.

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VICTORY! LAWMAKERS REJECT INSECURE ONLINE VOTING IN UTAH

On March 23, 2021, we joined with organizational partners and election security experts to present scientific evidence regarding the insecurity of online voting to lawmakers in Utah considering a bill to adopt online voting for all voters in municipal elections. Following our presentation, the Utah legislature rejected the online voting bill.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Internet Voting

Additional Resources

 

Map photo by NASA, Unsplash.com

California capital picture by Ttoolan, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons