Arizona offers military online voting
PHOENIX (AP) — Starting Thursday, voters who are registered in Arizona but live overseas will be able to vote online through a unique Web-based system.
The Secretary of State’s Military and Overseas Voting system will allow registered voters to apply for early ballots online and then submit their ballots electronically using a document scanner. Previously, Arizona elections officials allowed them to vote by faxing their ballots.
“They still can vote by fax, and now they have the option of voting on the Internet,” Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer said Monday.
The Secretary of State’s office developed the system itself and gained approval from the U.S. Department of Justice last week. Officials included a 128-bit encryption technology with the online ballots, giving each vote the kind of security that’s used in online banking and credit card transactions.
“We wanted to be absolutely sure it couldn’t be hacked into,” Brewer said.
Well, anything can be hacked into, but I certainly applaud Arizona’s efforts. I heard a story on the radio a couple weeks ago about how hard it is to vote from overseas especially for our military.
If this works maybe more States can follow AZ’s lead.