July 16, 2020  |  BOSTON

West Virginia is one of the best examples of how to build voter access across all demographics. This week, we shine a light on the Mountain State, recognizing its pioneering work under the leadership of Gov. Jim Justice and Secretary of State Mac Warner to build a resilient election system that stands up to the challenges of COVID-19 and ensures all voters have safe, secure access to the polls.

West Virginia was one of the first states in the country to understand the limitations of “traditional” forms of absentee voting for deployed military personnel, Americans abroad, and people with disabilities. It recognized that mail-in ballots, email, and fax were inefficient, difficult to use, and actually disenfranchised the voters they were focused on helping.

In 2018 West Virginia took the extraordinary step of piloting new technology and expanding options that addressed these issues — and they did it two years in advance of this year’s general elections by piloting secure, private ballots through mobile phones.

Initially, the state didn’t get enough credit for its leadership in voting access. Some members of the media, a few academics, and other skeptics have discounted and questioned the state’s decision to embrace the expansion of voting options by administering well-designed, measurable pilots. Disregarding the need for access and the necessity to prepare for the 2020 election season, a few have even called for such pilots to be halted.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything, validating West Virginia’s foresight, its astute state leadership, and the efficacy of their solution.

We are proud to be a small part of West Virginia’s bold and important initiative. In 2018, Voatz was the platform used to launch the first-in-the-nation pilot allowing overseas Americans to vote through a smartphone app-based platform. As stated in an op-ed by Secretary of State Warner, “We witnessed a volunteer in a remote West African village, a professor on an overseas sabbatical, a deployed paratrooper, and people in 30 countries vote safely with the app.”

Representatives from West Virginia have made great efforts to call our attention to the remote voting challenges for these groups, and to take real action. In 2019, Governor Justice signed SB-94 into law, pioneering the way for people with disabilities to vote in elections electronically. Disabled voters have been receiving the message that, given the clear obstacles in their path, their votes are not equal. This exemplary bill works to right a longstanding wrong and charts a course for future elections.

At Voatz, we are dedicated to supporting leaders like those in West Virginia who are making voting accessible for everyone. We celebrate and support West Virginia for its dedication to setting a new standard. Thank you, West Virginia, for creating a roadmap for the rest of the country.

When solving the voter access challenge, the most significant objection West Virginia faced concerned security. The State had found the technology partners, a solution that satisfied security criteria, met the standards for voter ease of use, the ability to audit, and full integration with their existing infrastructure.

During the 2018 midterm election pilot, the Voatz system detected and blocked several unsuccessful attempts to gain entry to the West Virginia election. Election officials, the West Virginia leadership and Voatz were ready for these attempts, having implemented a system built on a multi-layered approach to defense.

The West Virginia pilot project not only answered the pressing question of how to provide access to voters, but also successfully identified, thwarted, and reported to the jurisdiction all attempts to tamper with the system. This proved for the first time that it is indeed possible to build a resilient remote voting system - one that detects, blocks and reports attempted attacks. 
 

The West Virginia pilot has proven to be an ideal test case, setting a standard for election pilots and work across the country. This has quieted many voices of opposition, though a few of the loudest continue to call for an end to all work in this area.

Perhaps the most difficult and staunch opponents went so far as to mischaracterize the successful election pilot and security data points. It has even been misreported in multiple publications that Voatz reported hackers and researchers to the FBI, or intended to harm researchers. As we have repeatedly confirmed, this is blatantly false.

As stewards of our critical infrastructure, representatives of West Virginia called upon the US Attorney's Office and held a press conference to issue their report on the attack, which reflected a system that was successful in warding off attempted entry.

At this event, United States Attorney Mike Stuart issued a strong statement emphasizing the seriousness of election security.
 

Contact us to join our security webinar.

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If you are in West Virginia, contact your election officials to learn more about opportunities to vote online. Show them your support.