King County Tests Smartphone Voting For February Election

SEATTLE, WA — For the first time in history, all eligible King County voters will be able to cast ballots using their smartphones via an online system. The pilot project launched Wednesday and will allow 1.2 million registered voters to complete and sign ballots digitially for the King County Conservation District's Board of Supervisors election.

Washington is the fifth state to pilot a smartphone voting program, but King County is the first in the nation to offer the option to all voters — not just military members, those living overseas, or people with disabilities.

The system was developed in partnership with Tusk Philanthropies, the National Cybersecurity Center and Democracy Live, a Seattle-based company.

HOW IT WORKS

Registered voters can opt-in to vote electronically on their smartphones by logging onto an online portal and filling in their name and birth date.

Once the ballot is complete, voters can review their selections and sign the ballot using their touchscreen. King County Elections will verify ballots using signature comparison, in the same way they do with mail-in votes.

Voters still have the option to print and return marked ballots to local drop boxes.

Voting began Wednesday and ballots can be cast until 8 p.m. on Election Day, Feb. 11.

King County officials cited historically low turnout, often below 1 percent, during previous Board of Supervisors elections as a key reason for testing a mobile option to boost turnout.

As National Public Radio reports, expanding mobile voting in the U.S. has faced opposition from some cybersecurity experts who fear technology could still be susceptible to intrusion or tampering.

The system used by King County, OmniBallot, stores ballots on the AWS cloud, which officials say meets all federal requirements for securing critical data.

Some have raised concerns over the minimal requirements to cast a ballot through the online portal. King County Elections said the verification process mirrors the one already in place for tabulating paper ballots.

Elections officials said there were no plans to expand the program to other elections this year or in the future. According to King County Elections, Conservation District elections are governed by different laws, which allowed for the mobile pilot program.

Learn more about the mobile voting program on the King County Conservation District website.