Election Takeaway: Emergencies Aren’t the Time for Experimenting

The lesson learned from an email ballot fiasco that roiled hurricane-stricken New Jersey residents is that government officials should not concoct statewide disaster voting procedures during disasters, legal and technology experts say.

On Election Day, anecdotes abounded about problems associated with email voting in the state. There were reports that legitimate email requests for e-ballots went unanswered, emails to election officials were bouncing back to senders and organizers were collecting voter forms through their personal webmail addresses. “In an emergency, you do have to think through the emergency measures that should be put into place,” said Penny Venetis, a constitutional and human rights law professor at Rutgers University. “Computerized voting is a bad idea during any circumstance, especially emergency circumstances where you don’t have enough staff.” The gaffes do not include potential email hacking and identity fraud. Intentional disenfranchisement won’t be discovered until officials can match e-ballots with duplicate paper ballots that were due to be mailed in by Nov. 19.