MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Though there may be a slight expansion of the Voatz application in future West Virginia elections, don’t expect it to be used on the homefront.
Secretary of State Mac Warner said the program “went extremely well” and earned a lot of positive feedback from its users overseas. However, expansion of the program, which allowed overseas West Virginians in 19 counties to vote in November’s mid-term election, probably will not go beyond its current scope.
“We’re keeping it limited to the military and overseas voters,” he said on WAJR’s Morgantown AM.
Warner, a veteran himself, said he has been approached by other states’ election officials about the program — including Colorado.
“They might be looking at it for, say, people who don’t have access to the polls — sick, elderly, or whatever,” he added.
But, for Warner, expanding this application to the homefront seems like an unnecessary risk.
“The question you have is the cost-benefit analysis: is it worth the risk?” he said. “The broader audience you take it to, the greater the risk. The more incentive there is for a black hat or a Russian to hack the system.”
In its current format, Warner said there is very little incentive for hackers to even both with the app — it impacts too small a number of voters and those voters are not using uniform ballots. In West Virginia alone, voters had access to 998 different types of ballots last year.
“Of the 144 voters we had, I think they voted 119 different ballot styles,” Warner said. “Think of the complexity of trying to get in there and figure out the specific ballot for a specific county for a specific voter and when he turns on that app between the time he turns it on and he votes to try to get in there and hack it. It’s pretty difficult, next to impossible.”
In Colorado, for example, where Warner said there may be interest in expanding ballot access to those who aren’t well enough to make it to the polls, the needs may be greater. In West Virginia, he doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t think there’s that great a need for people that have access to the precincts and polls inside the state to take it in that directon,” he said. “It’s not worth the risk in my analysis.”