INVESTIGATION: 900 Voted by Non-Secure Email in 2020 RI Election
GoLocalProv News Team
INVESTIGATION: 900 Voted by Non-Secure Email in 2020 RI Election
Email voting has been considered to be unsafe — non-secure — and the most vulnerable form of voting by election officials and security experts across the country. Email voting is considered the easiest to manipulate.
“As far as I know no states allow voting by email. At this point the security issues are simply too overwhelming,” said Elaine Kamarck, Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies at Brookings and the author of a major analysis of how each state managed the election.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTGoLocal has learned via an Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request that 900 non-secure email votes were counted by the RI Board of Elections. The votes were cast by overseas and military personnel under The Uniformed And Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) - a federal law that ensures all, especially those serving in the military are provided an opportunity to vote from abroad.
No Public Review of Decision to Allow Email Voting
The RI Board of Elections approved a plan in January of 2020 to allow overseas absentee voters and those in the military serving overseas to vote.
The plan was approved without public review or input. The Board of Elections does not adhere to the administrative procedures act — the law that requires public notice and input into regulations before they are adopted.
The plan developed by the Board of Elections staff only required a voter to email the ballot back. There was no second form of confirmation.
The policy for the emailed ballots had no third party verification, were not posted to a cloud for security or leveraged any other form of technology — the policy of the Board of Elections simply states:
- Mail ballot is emailed to [email protected] which is linked to the email of the mail ballot coordinator.
- Upon receipt, the mail ballot coordinator prints out email with documents attached.
- All documents are sealed in a yellow envelope with the oath certification glued to the exterior of envelope.
And the document continues as to how the ballots are handled internally by the Board of Election once they are received, but ballots do not require a second form of confirmation. Security experts have repeatedly warned that email ballots can be changed and the voter would never know.
Unrelated to the email voting, Rhode Island overall earned a “C” for management of the elections from Brookings.
In a phone interview with Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, she more than a dozen times refused to answer if she thought the non-secure email voting process now being administered by the Board of Elections was safe. Gorbea is Rhode Island’s chief elections officer.
GOLOCAL: I'm asking you as the chief executive of elections if this makes sense in 2021, that we're allowing people to vote via unsecure email, with no third-party technology to be able to protect the integrity of the vote.
It's anyone's email address from any server from anywhere in the world. It would seem to be riddled with the potential for fraud, do you think that that's an acceptable structure yes or no?
GORBEA: “Ask the Board of Elections.”
Throughout the interview, Gorbea repeatedly refused to voice any concerns about non-secure emails.
She was well aware that GoLocal had repeatedly spoken to the Board of Elections and had, in fact, filed an APRA to secure the public documents.
Gorbea was also unaware of how many military and overseas voters.
GOLOCAL: Do you know how many voted via absentee in the united states military?
GORBEA; Are you going to tell me?
GOLOCAL: No, I'm asking you, do you know?
GORBEA: No
GOLOCAL: Ballpark, no idea?
GORBEA: No
The Board of Elections reported to GoLocal that 3,074 ballots were sent to overseas and military personnel and 2,732 were returned.
Of those, 1,821 were returned by mail, 900 by non-secure email, and 11 by fax.
Failure to Report Data to Federal Government
In the audit conducted by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission of the 2020 election, Rhode Island was the only agency to fail to provide data relating to overseas and military voters.
According to the 252-page report, Rhode Island failed to report UOCAVA Ballot Return Rates and did not return the state's Ballot Rejection Rate. Rhode Island was the only state that failed to provide the data.
The RI Board of Elections asserts that, "according to Rhode Island General Law all UOCAVA mail ballots are consolidated into one mail ballot category."
Deep Concerns About Security of Email Voting
The National Council of State Legislators who monitors each state’s voting policies was unaware that Rhode Island was allowing email voting. The only electronic voting that the organization found according to its report was that RI allowed in certain instances for overseas absentee ballots to be returned by fax machine only.
"We believe that the electronic return of the ballot is too risky," John Marion, executive director of the local Common Cause chapter, previously told The Providence Journal in an email. "The FBI and [R.I. Congressman] Jim Langevin both agree. It can be hacked and votes can be changed, and the voter would never know.''
Marion's comments were related to a bill under consideration during the 2021 legislative session that would allow disabled Rhode Island voters to use a cloud-based technology — a higher degree of security than the Board of Election’s non-secured email voting program.
No Email Voting for RI’s Disabled
While Gorbea has a confusing position on non-secure email voting for the military and overseas voters, her position has repeatedly changed on secure email voting for RI's disabled community.
Gorbea had flipped and flopped on her position on allowing disabled voters to be able to vote via an email structure.
In a letter to Representative Evan Shanley, chair of House Committee on State Government & Elections from Gorbea about legislation relating to disabled Rhode Islanders, she wrote, "My office currently transmits ballots to military and overseas voters. However, the current law implies that electronic transmission means faxing. In practice, faxed ballots rarely make it to voters because fax machines are rare and outdated. This bill would allow my office to establish updated methods of electronically transmitting ballots."
"In 2020, my office implemented an improved process for the electronic transmission of ballots to disabled residents. This allowed for many residents to vote by mail, independently. Still, voters could only receive their ballots this way. Ballots could only be returned by mail, or placement in a dropbox," stated Gorbea in the letter.
Then, Gorbea reversed course.
In a second letter from Gorbea to the General Assembly, that references how oversees and military voters vote — via fax.
“In our state’s history. I also realize that it is important to improve the way our military and overseas voters receive and return their mail ballots. State law allows these voters to receive and return their mail ballot via fax, which is an outdated and insecure means of transmission. The men and women fighting for our country should have modern methods of returning their ballot and I am committed to updating that process,” wrote Gorbea in the second letter.
Security Gaps, Lack of Data Management, and No Public Input
The two-month investigation found a lack of record-keeping and a lack of transparency by the Board of Elections.
There is a lack of public input and review of critical regulations — regulations that allowed voters few options for secure voting.
Moreover, the confusion and lack of coordination between the Secretary of State’s office and the Board of Elections as it relates to basic policies and security considerations, i.e., it is not safe for disabled voters in RI to vote by emails, but it is safe for an overseas Rhode Islander to vote from China, Russia or Afghanistan — is poor policy and puts the integrity of ballots at risk.