DI Editorializes Against Email Ballots
The Daily Iowan has followed its skeptical coverage of the email ballot plan for military voters with an even more skeptical editorial.
. . .the e-mail program used for the voting, the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, does not provide encryption or a way to authenticate security. For hackers, this could be an invitation to change people’s ballots or prevent their vote from reaching an auditor’s office in the United States. . . .
The issue of privacy is especially relevant for those serving in the military overseas. With their e-mails already monitored for content to ensure locations aren’t compromised, etc., what’s stopping the government from monitoring votes or a superior officer from discovering how a soldier of lower rank voted and then punishing him because of it. This scenario is obviously not one we’d like to see played out, but the unfortunate truth is that it could happen, and things far worse have happened within the military.