Email Votes With Security and Privacy
Email voting has one advantage (speed) but two disadvantages (loss of balllot secrecy and loss of security). How about a compromise method that retains some secrecy and gains some speed? Granted this idea is slower than the Iowa plan, but it is as secure as regular absentee ballots.
This idea is constructed from a conversation between Prof Doug Jones and Iowans for Voting Integrity president Carole Simmons and others. I was not present for the conversation.
The Plan:
Overseas voters can apply for absentee ballots by email and counties can send out ballots as pdf files. That speeds up the process.
Voters must then print the ballot pdf, mark it as any other paper ballot, and mail it back via the post office. That retains all the security of absentee ballots and is more secretive than email.
There is unlikely to be complete privacy here, however. This ballot can’t go through the scanner, so it has to be counted by real people. They might know the voter in question if only one or two pdf ballots arrive at a precinct.
But we have gained transmission security and some privacy, while giving up some speed.
Here is a thorough critique of a 2004 email voting plan. Hat tip to Prof Jones.