By Sam Kinch
As a military veteran, I know how difficult it can be to exercise the basic right to vote when you’re stationed overseas. Military service is an apolitical act, and voting is the only voice we have in the decisions that impact our lives. But too many military members stationed away from home do not vote because it’s too difficult.
Barriers to voting exist not only for our troops, but for disabled people, citizens living abroad, people displaced by natural disasters, young people and marginalized communities. And there are new, unprecedented challenges. WIll natural disasters or weather events prevent planned transportation to vote?” Will new US Postal Service postmarking rules mean that timely ballots are not counted?
There is a solution. Right now, the Maryland legislature is considering legislation that would allow cities to offer mobile voting in municipal elections, in addition to other forms of voting, if they choose to do so. SB727/HB1066, sponsored by Senator Karen Lewis Young and Delegate Mary Lehman, would enable communities to opt-in to pilot mobile voting technology in their local elections if they are interested in doing so.
Mobile voting is not a new concept. Juneau and Anchorage offered this option to voters in their city elections last year. It has been piloted in 21 jurisdictions in 7states (both red and blue) since 2018 and the results were positive. Turnout doubled among military and overseas voters in Denver, and tripled in a special district in Seattle, Washington. In South Carolina, ballot returns among military and overseas voters went from 9.8% in the June 2020 primary to 55% August. And the streamlined process saved more than 70 hours of manual work.
When I was first introduced to mobile voting, I approached it with exactly the level of skepticism you would expect from someone who worked closely with Cyber Command and the National Security Agency. My professional career has been spent both breaking into systems and defending them. I do not take election security lightly, and I would not lend my support to any system that failed to meet a high technical and security bar.
After examining the technology closely—particularly systems that rely on open-source software, end-to-end verification, and independent security review—I believe mobile voting can be implemented responsibly and securely. In fact, I believe it has the potential to solve a problem I have witnessed and lived with for years: eligible voters, especially those in the military, being functionally excluded by distance, deployment, or access constraints.
Based on my experience defending critical systems and assessing real-world threats, I believe that—with the right safeguards—mobile voting can expand access while protecting the integrity of our elections.
Too many Marylanders are excluded from our democracy because voting is not accessible. SB727/HB1066 can begin to move us into a future where all of our community members have the ability to impact the decisions that affect their lives.
Sam Kinch is a resident of Crownsville, Maryland. He spent 30 years in the United States military, including leading the integration of all National Guard cybersecurity forces into U.S. Cyber Command.