Nevada has a plan to expand electronic voting. This worries election security experts

SCHURZ, Nevada – Members of the Walker River Paiute Tribe have watched the boundaries of their lands recede over time along with the lake waters that are central to their identity, threatening the cultural symbol that gave the tribe its name — Agai Dicutta, or Trout Eaters.

Unwilling to cede their voice, tribal leaders have pushed for expansion Right to vote. This effort includes filing a lawsuit on behalf of all Nevada tribes seeking polling locations on tribal lands and access to early voting.

“Tribes shouldn’t have to keep filing lawsuits just to vote on their own land,” said Elveda Martinez, 65, a tribal member and longtime voting advocate. “It should be more accessible.”

The state has now granted the Walker River Paiutes and other tribes in Nevada a new right that advocates hope will greatly expand voting access for a community that gained U.S. citizenship just one century ago.

Voting on reservations across the country has historically been difficult, with tribal voters sometimes having to travel dozens of miles to their polling place. Slow mail service and lack of physical addresses, common on tribal lands, proved to be a challenge.

The new process – the ability to vote electronically – has the potential to significantly increase participation among all tribes in Nevada. But what some consider a small measure of justice to equalize voting rights raises security concerns for others, with implications far beyond Nevada’s 28 tribal communities, as the nation prepares for what is expected to be yet another close and controversial presidential election in November.

Under the plan, tribal members in Nevada who live on a reservation or colony can receive a ballot electronically through a state-created online system and then return it electronically. Experts warn that this type of voting – when a completed ballot is sent back by email, through an online portal or by fax – carries risks of ballots being intercepted or manipulated and should be used. in moderation, if at all.

“Right now in the United States, there are a relatively small number of votes that go that way,” said Larry Norden, an election expert at the Brennan Center for Justice. “But we should be very concerned — both from the standpoint of the real security risks, but also from the standpoint of public trust — about expanding this.”

While electronic voting may be limited at this time, it is available in much of the country for specific groups of voters. More than 30 states allow certain voters to return their ballots by fax, email or online portal, according to data collected by the National Conference of State Legislatures and Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that studies state voting systems.

In most cases, electronic voting is only available to U.S. military personnel and overseas voters. But it has been expanded in recent years to include voters with disabilities in a dozen states. Nevada is believed to be the first to add tribes.

Cal Boone, the new tribal outreach coordinator for the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office and a member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe, has begun meeting with tribes across the state to share details about the process, which he believes could alleviate a legacy of barriers that left some reluctant to vote.

“In recent years, tribes have been denied access to voting in a number of ways. You had to rely on the mail system to vote or otherwise go to great lengths to vote,” Boone said. “What we’re seeing in Nevada is really powerful and really sets the stage for what other states across the country can do to help support tribes.”

But the solution carries risks.

In a 2020 memo to election officials, the FBI and other federal agencies assessed that the risk of submitting votes electronically was low, but allowing those votes to be returned electronically was high. The memo highlights best security practices for Internet-connected systems, including isolating computers that handle electronic ballots from those that are used for other aspects of voting.

“The information provided should be considered a starting point,” the memo states. “Even with these technical security considerations, electronic voting remains a high-risk activity.”

Earlier this year, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is charged with helping protect the nation’s election systems, said in an online post that the memo was being redistributed to ensure state officials and lawmakers were “fully informed about the risks” associated with electronic technology. return of the vote.

Susannah Goodman, director of election security at Common Cause, is among those concerned that there are no federal guidelines for such systems and no independent review, unlike what exists for voting machines and vote counters.

An attempt to create independent standards ended in late 2022 after a group of experts determined it was not possible at the time due to technology and cyber risks.

Kim Wyman, the former top election official in Washington state, initially supported electronic voting as a military wife but said she became wary after taking on the role of secretary of state. Her attempt to persuade lawmakers to repeal it was unsuccessful.

Wyman said he worries something could happen to ballots in transit and what that would mean for public confidence in elections. She believes the safest bet is for voters who receive ballots electronically to print them and return them in the mail.

“Election officials are in a difficult situation because they want to provide accessibility and they want to ensure that every eligible American has the right to participate in an election,” Wyman said. “But they have to do it in a way that also secures those ballots and ensures that the voter’s ballot is counted the way the voter cast it.”

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said he knows the process carries risks, but sees everything related to the election as having some risk. He highlighted the federal government’s action in 2017 to designate the country’s voting systems as critical infrastructure, such as dams, banks and nuclear power plants.

The state’s electronic vote return system was designed by the state with security measures designed to verify eligibility, authenticate voters and their ballots and ensure secure communications, he said. There are steps to ensure voters don’t vote multiple times, and the system undergoes regular security reviews and updates.

“I’m confident in our system,” Aguilar said.

He expressed frustration with what he described as a lack of national leadership on this and other election issues, saying there should be less criticism and more work and funding to address concerns.

“The federal government has access to so many experts, it has access to resources. They should provide a leadership position to give us a path forward,” Aguilar said. “Thinking back and scaring ourselves is not the appropriate way to do it.”

So far, few Nevada voters have chosen to participate. As of Friday, 255 voters had submitted a ballot electronically — none of them tribal members — ahead of Tuesday’s primary. More than half of them were recorded in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and is the most populous in the state.

“People who participate find it very convenient and easy to use,” said Clark County Recorder Lorena Portillo.

Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, just over 2,500 voters returned their votes electronically through the state system. Among them was Ramona Coker, who is blind. Coker said she no longer needs help voting and can vote on her phone, which is equipped with screen reading technology that allows her to follow audio instructions to make her selections.

“It feels very American. It feels like you did your part and no one else had any influence on it,” said Coker, who works for a nonprofit in the Reno area.

She believes the challenges faced by voters with disabilities outweigh the potential risks of electronic voting.

“We will always have bad actors out there, no matter what form of delivery or return we use,” Coker said. “And if you’re always worried about that, you’ll never vote again.”

States led by Democrats and Republicans have authorized electronic voting, with varying rules. Alaska, California, Florida and Oklahoma limit the process to military and overseas voters and only allow electronic fax returns. In Texas, astronauts can use an online portal to vote. In West Virginia, first responders serving outside their county are also eligible.

“Having been in the army, I saw information transmitted over the Internet. We transmit nuclear codes over the Internet,” said West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner. “If we can do that, we can certainly get a secure vote and transmit it over the Internet.”

Not all states have adopted the practice. In Minnesota, officials considered the possibility but ultimately decided against it.

“In light of recent security concerns, the situation is frozen,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. “Someday – if these security considerations are addressed and if the concerns and objections of federal agencies can be overcome – we would definitely consider it because, as a matter of expediency, it would probably make a difference.”

The Walker River Paiute Reservation sits along a scenic stretch of highway between Las Vegas and Reno, about two hours south of the state capital, in a vast stretch of desert surrounded by distant mountain peaks.

On a late spring day, irrigators prepare the alfalfa fields that dot the preserve while wild horses graze in the foothills nearby. There are no grocery stores, restaurants, or hotels, and the closest town is about 30 miles away.

Although the tribe has long had its own polling place — something other tribes in the state do not — the remoteness of the reservation has sometimes contributed to a sense of political isolation. Some tribal members didn’t always see the point in voting.

“Because of the historical abuses our people have faced, we were too shy to even participate in voting or elections,” said tribal chairwoman Andrea Martinez. “For many years, we felt like our voice didn’t even matter.”

The prospect of voting electronically is a step that Martinez and other tribal leaders welcome, but aren’t sure it will make a big difference, at least initially. Internet access is irregular in the reserve, as is electricity, due to old poles.

“While we, through the state, may have access to online voting, who knows if we will have electricity or internet that day?” said Martinez.

Teresa McNally, who oversees the elections office in Mineral County, which includes the Walker River reservation, plans to hold a meeting with tribal members this year to explain the new system.

One thing she wants to emphasize is a focus on security, including measures that protect the electronic vote return system.

“What it takes to get into our internet system here is crazy,” she said.

Courtney Quintero, a tribal member and chairwoman of the board that oversees tribal elections, said she planned to use the new system as soon as she knew more about it, but acknowledged that others may be hesitant.

“Trust is a big thing in our community,” she said.

___

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to improve its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. AP is solely responsible for all content.