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West Virginia May primary will be first in nation to test app allowing overseas voting for military

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monongalia and Harrison counties will be among the first two in West Virginia — and the nation — to test a pilot voting program that allows deployed military personnel to vote using a mobile application.

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, a 23-year veteran with several overseas deployments and the father of a presently deployed soldier, said this hits particularly close to home for him — considering the difficulty of receiving mail when in Afghanistan.

“My son did it within a matter of minutes,” Warner said Thursday on MetroNews “Talkline” with Hoppy Kercheval. “He came back and said, ‘Dad, this is slick. Everybody should be able to vote that way.'”

Warner said it’s possible that the application could have a wider function for a general electorate, but specifically cited it’s small-scale use in easing the access to voting for deployed military members as a primary motivation.

“It’s an anecdotal first run, and he was very happy,” Warner said, referring to his son. “He then went out and jumped out of an airplane. So, you can imagine where his mind was.”

The mobile app uses blockchain, often used in financial transactions for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, to create a ledger that represents voters and candidates.

“The voter has a credit that he can use, and the candidate is waiting for that credit to be transferred,” Warner said. “When that vote takes place, it is credited to the candidate and it is debited from the voter. So, he can’t vote a second time.”

This offers both an easy way for overseas citizens and deployed soldiers, protected under the Uniformed & Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), a much easier means of voting — but also one that can remain safe from potential cyber intrusion.

“Clerk only gives him one opportunity to do so,” Warner said. “That’s the beauty of the blockchain. All of this is verifiable. It’s auditable.”

Warner said he heard positive feedback from both Harrison County Clerk Susan Thomas and Monongalia County Clerk Carye Blaney.

“(Blaney) had a person in Australia that had to FedEx a ballot back, and it cost them $50 because they had to use the civilian rates,” he said. “And that ballot still didn’t get back in time. We eliminate all of that with this mobile app voting.”

The feedback isn’t just local though. With this initiative essentially the first in the U.S., Warner said he had heard positive feedback from entrenched campaign operatives on both sides of the political aisle whose campaigns had suffered cyber intrusion.

“I spoke with Robby Mook, who was Hillary Clinton campaign’s manager; and I spoke with Matt Rhoades who was Mitt Romney’s campaign manager — both of whom’s campaign was hacked,” Warner said. “They have both saluted, high-fived me. ‘You’re doing great, go forward.’ They’re excited about this.”

In total, it’s expected only a few dozen voters overseas will participate in the use of the app during the May 8 primary election.

“We’re starting small,” he said. “If it works well in the primary, then we’ll expand throughout the state in the general.”





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