(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/22/2024) "Mobile voting," or voting online via a smartphone app or website, has been piloted in multiple states for military and overseas voters, but one jurisdiction in Washington state that's extended it to all eligible voters has tripled voter participation, said Jocelyn Bucaro, director of the nonprofit Mobile Voting Project. 

Bucaro, a former city and county of Denver elections director, spoke on the MIRS Monday podcast about mobile voting, a practice she said has been piloted in multiple states and over 300 jurisdictions.  

According to a May 9, 2024, brief by the National Conference of State Legislatures, 31 states, Washington, D.C. and the Virgin Islands allow specific voter groups, like military and overseas voters, to return their ballots electronically, with 25 of those allowing return by email and 10 permitting a mobile voting return for military members.   

As of Jan. 1, 2024, Michigan allows overseas active duty military members to return their ballot electronically using a Department of Defense (DOD) e-signature, though a Rep. Carol Glanville (D-Grand Rapids) bill awaiting action in the Senate would extend that to military spouses and remove the DOD provision. 

While several other states have expanded electronic voting to also include residents with disabilities, no state has fully expanded electronic voting to its entire population, and mobile voting allowances for the general public are more scarce.  

So far, Bucaro said her nonprofit has supported around 20 mobile voting pilot programs in seven states with grant funding, including in Colorado, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, with West Virginia the first state to pilot it in 2018. 

In one district in King County, Washington, all eligible voters have been able to cast a mobile vote since 2020, she said. Nearly three times as many voters have turned out since.  

Bucaro said mobile voting has the power to increase voter participation, "particularly in those low turnout elections when not as many voters even realize there's an election taking place, but … their participation can have a really big impact on … their local community and then, of course, on who gets elected with such low participation. 

"Imagine if turnout tripled in a primary, and we went from 9% to 30%," she said. " . . . It  would really potentially change the way politicians think about their reelection, which is really all they care about."  

In another example, an Arlington County, Virginia, Democratic caucus used mobile voting in 2021 to hold an election during the COVID-19 pandemic, and users set a new record for participation.  

"That was with very few competitive races," she said. "So even when you didn't have competitive contests, we still set a record for turnout by adding mobile voting."  

Bucaro said that's partially due to the ease of mobile voting, which allows users to sign up, cast their vote and verify their identity, all on one mobile device.  

Bucaro said that her Denver pilot program ended with a voter survey, and 100 percent of the voters who filled it out, roughly half of those who used mobile voting, expressed interest in using the system again.  

But if so many people are supportive, why hasn't mobile voting taken off?  

Bucaro said the biggest concern she's heard about has been security, whether it's voter impersonation or ballots being hacked.  

Patrice Johnson, chair of Pure Integrity for Michigan Elections (PIME), said her group would be "very opposed" to mobile voting.  

"Mobile voting by a phone is absurd," she said. "There's no way to identify the validity of the human being at the other end of the phone."  

Johnson added that mobile voting could be targeted toward certain demographics, which is also concerning.  

Bucaro said the election security community is right to say there are risks, as with anything done online, but "some of those risks can be mitigated" to allow voters confidence in an online system.   

She said that's something her nonprofit is already addressing with research and development into new technology.  

"We're confident that . . . we can protect the integrity of the election and make sure only eligible voters are voting using all the methods I mentioned," she said. " . . . We feel like this is achievable. We're working with the best minds in the business to make this a reality."