It would be great if we could safely vote online. Not only would it be convenient, it would also mean that a whole bunch of longstanding, very important, extremely difficult computer science problems had been solved. which would make all sorts of useful-but-currently-impossible things beyond voting possible, too.
But unfortunately, those problems haven't been solved (and may well never be). So we can't. Sorry.
Octavia E. Butler wrote about the hazards of e-voting.
There's a scene in "Parable of the Sower" where the master of the house observes as his domestic servants all vote "correctly" online.
Postmaster DeJoy coerced employees into donating to the GOP.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/06/politics/dejoy-gop-fundraiser-contributions/index.html
In an increasingly inequitous America coerced voting becomes more and more widespread.
Voter intimidation gets easier with e-voting.
https://medium.com/votem/voter-coercion-in-context-5c3df172e593
@Npars01 Indeed, and that's a risk of all forms of remote voting, whether via a computer or mail-in ballot. That risk is ultimately a tradeoff between accessibility and resistance to coercion, and that's ultimately a public policy question independent of the technology itself.
But submission of ballots over the internet also introduces technology problem that we don't know how to solve, even if we wanted to.
Using technology to vote may risk disenfranchisement of the homeless, the poor, seniors, immigrants, illiterate, dyslexic, blind etc.
Technical solutions assumes everyone has access and education to use it.
Not everyone has a phone or computer or internet access.
Not everyone reads English well enough to use technology.
My neighbor has an 80 year old Italian-immigrant grandmother with cataracts who votes regularly but balks at text messaging.
Agreed.
There are technological solutions to election security that are available and worth pursuing.
Protecting election infrastructure becomes even more critical as Republican billionaire donors fund intimidation & attacks on election workers, drop boxes, the USPS, voting machines, voter registration, and ballot handling.
Matt Blaze
Nicole Parsons