Earlier this week we sent a letter to Governor Malloy requesting that he veto Senate Bill 647, now Public Act 13-185. It is now up to the Governor to protect voting integrity, uphold the Connecticut Constitution, and remain steadfast to the principles articulated to his veto message last year for a similar bill. <full letter>
Here is the summary from the letter articulating why a veto is appropriate:
- This bill is a threat to the security, accuracy, and secrecy of the votes of our military members and their dependents, and thus to the certified outcomes of our elections.
- It is unconstitutional since it violates the Connecticut Constitution, which states: “The right of secret voting shall be preserved.”
- It requires the Secretary of the State and the Connecticut Military Department to develop a system for secure and private online voting by October 1st. A task that security experts, computer scientists, and experts at Homeland Security, and NIST (The National Institutes of Standards and Technology) believe is technically impossible.
- It is further complicated by provisions for voting by deployed military dependents. It also is not restricted to deployed military, not even restricted to military actually on duty.
- It sets a requirement for guaranteed receipt within four hours in each voter’s municipality. This cannot be accomplished by either fax or email return.
- While online voting through a web page might be developed to meet the guaranteed return requirement, it is also insecure, risks the secret vote, and would be very expensive.
- All known methods of Internet voting would likely violate Connecticut’s Voter Verified Paper Records law established in 2005.
