RE: Online and Mail-in Voting Systems

Open Government Community Group,

Here is some more brainstorming. Voters could receive a postcard with a voter ID in the mail to use when logging in to an online portal for voting. Then, after voting they could receive a confirmation number to write upon that postcard and return it in the mail.


  1.  A voter receives a postcard in the mail with their voter ID (e.g. 1234) printed on it.
  2.  They log into vote.gov including with their voter ID.
  3.  They vote using vote.gov.
  4.  Upon completion of voting, they receive a confirmation number from vote.gov (e.g. ABCD).
  5.  They physically write their confirmation number (ABCD) on a line below the voter ID (1234) on the postcard.
  6.  They place the postcard back in their mailbox.
  7.  The postcard is mailed for free to the voter’s local vote-processing facility.
  8.  Upon receipt, the voter’s local vote-processing facility confirms the vote.
  9.  The voter can opt to receive, by e-mail, an indication when their electronic vote is physically confirmed.
     *   Alternatively, the voter can visit vote.gov and enter their voter ID (1234) to see the status of the confirmation process of their vote.


Perhaps Americans should petition their representatives in Congress to pass legislation forming a multi-organizational council (resembling CIO.gov<https://www.cio.gov/>) which would steward, coordinate, perform and fund multiple avenues of R&D on the topics of remote voting systems and vote-from-home systems. Such a council would also meet with industry towards completion of its objectives.


Best regards,
Adam Sobieski

P.S.: Here are some quotes from Wikipedia:

“Research shows that the availability of postal voting increases turnout. There is no evidence that postal voting is linked to substantial electoral fraud or voter fraud.” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_voting

According to a study of the Help America Vote Act based reforms, “the states differed along partisan lines in introducing improvements: ‘[T]he partisan make-up of state government frequently influenced the fate of these reforms. States with a divided government or high party competition tended not to adopt several key electoral reforms, while partisanship and the interaction of partisanship and minority representation influenced the adoption of others. Fiscal constraints and institutional arrangements had less impact on reform adoption. Overall, our findings suggest that electoral reforms were shaped more by political factors than by fiscal concerns or any objective need for reform.’” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_America_Vote_Act

P.P.S.:

https://www.nist.gov/itl/voting


From: Adam Sobieski<mailto:adamsobieski@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2020 8:25 PM
To: public-opengov@w3.org<mailto:public-opengov@w3.org>
Subject: Online and Mail-in Voting Systems

Open Government Community Group,

As postal voting is in the news, I would like to ask a question and to share some information.

The question pertains to companies and government organizations presently researching and developing secure remote voting systems. Does anybody know of any companies or government organizations working on researching and developing secure remote voting systems?

The information pertains to some ideas with respect to electronic voting and postal voting systems. It is possible that electronic systems can secure postal voting systems. It is possible that postal systems can secure electronic voting systems.

“After voting online, voters can print their ballots. Printed ballots can be designed for purposes including rapid visual inspection by voters to compare their printed ballots to post-printing on-screen contents. Printed ballots can include cryptographic hashes of and other visual representations of voting results, such as barcodes or QR codes. Printed ballots can include one or more confirmation numbers, barcodes or QR codes which indicate or confirm each voting event. Printed ballots can include the text of the ballots with voters’ votes or other text-based versions of voters’ votes. Printed ballots can include voters’ regional codes, postal zip codes and voting district codes. Printed ballots or the addresses upon envelopes can be recognized by post offices for free delivery for purposes of concurrent postal voting. At vote-processing locations, computer vision and optical character recognition can expedite the processing of printed ballots; the confirmation numbers, barcodes or QR codes upon printed ballots provide for interoperation with electronic systems at other locations. The two systems, electronic and postal voting, can mutually secure one another.” – https://www.w3.org/community/collaboration/2016/07/04/electronic-and-postal-voting/

That was some brainstorming from 2016.

Maybe people will be able to vote with their smartphones someday. I wonder whether any projects underway at the W3C could facilitate such technology.


Best regards,
Adam Sobieski