West Virginia Offers Blockchain-Based App As An Option For Midterm Elections Voting

U.S. troops serving abroad will have the capacity to utilize a smartphone application based on blockchain technology for throwing government election polls in West Virginia this November, CNN reports August 6.

The mobile voting platform, Voatz, uses facial recognition software to guarantee that every voter coordinates their government-issued identification. CNN takes note that West Virginia will confine the utilization of the mobile application predominantly to troops presently abroad.

The West Virginia Secretary of State, Mac Warner, and Voatz, the Boston-based application developer, revealed to CNN that they hope that the application is secure after effective tests in two areas for the state’s spring primary elections. As per Warner’s office, “four audits of various components of the tool, including its cloud and blockchain infrastructure, revealed no problems.”

Michael L. Ruler, Warner’s vice president of staff, revealed to CNN that every West Virginia province will have a final decision on whether to utilize the application in the November elections, including that troops will be permitted to cast paper ballots if they pick.

Also, chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology Joseph Lorenzo Hall revealed to CNN that “mobile voting is a horrific idea,” and the leader of the election integrity guard dog group Verified Voting, Marian K. Schneider, included that mobile voting could make “unquestionably open “far more opportunities for hacking and meddling,” CNN notes.

West Virginia had beforehand guided Voatz’s mobile blockchain voting platform in Harrison and Monongalia districts in the first election this spring. The preliminary was constrained to sent military members, nationals qualified to vote absentee under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and their partners and children.