Free Speech For People joined a coalition of scientific experts and government watchdog groups in issuing an open letter calling on Governors, Secretaries of State and State Elections Directors to avoid the use of any internet voting or voting app system in U.S. elections. 

Prepared by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues, the letter outlines for key recommendations:

  1. All internet voting systems and technologies are currently inherently insecure. 
  2. No technical evidence exists that any internet voting technology is safe or can be made so in the foreseeable future; rather, all research performed to date demonstrates the opposite. 
  3. No blockchain technology can mitigate the profound dangers inherent in internet voting. 
  4. No mobile voting app is sufficiently secure to permit its use. 

“As state officials are trying to find the best possible solutions to deal with COVID-19 pandemic, they must ensure that such measures do not increase the vulnerability of our elections to hackers and foreign attackers,” says Susan Greenhalgh, Senior Advisor on Election Security at Free Speech For People.  “Online voting is not a solution. The overwhelming consensus among computer security experts is that online voting would directly threaten the security and legitimacy of our elections.” 

Free Speech For People signed the letter along with the AAAS Center For Scientific Evidence in Public Issues, the Association for Computing Machinery U.S. Technology Policy Committee, Brennan Center For Justice, Common Cause, Computer Research Association, R Street, and Verified Voting.

Read the full letter here.