West Virginia Secretary of State Reports Successful Blockchain Voting in 2018 Midterm Elections

The Secretary of State of the U.S. state of West Virginia Mac Warner reported a successful first instance of remote blockchain voting in an official announcement Nov. 15.

Voting for the general elections on the platform started in September, when absentee balloting opened in West Virginia.

Blockchain-based ballots were then restricted to a select group of voters such as deployed military members and other citizens eligible to vote absentee under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act and their spouses and dependents.

The Voatz system was initially developed to address the issue of low voter participation among members of the military.

After counting rejections and tardy ballots, only 11 percent of said votes were counted.

"Secretary Warner has never and will never advocate that this is a solution for mainstream voting."

According to data from the United States Elections Project, West Virginia ranks 44th of 50 states in voter participation at 42.6 percent.

Some experts have expressed concern over the safety of mobile voting.

"Mobile voting is a horrific idea. It's Internet voting on people's horribly secured devices, over our horrible networks, to servers that are very difficult to secure without a physical paper record of the vote."

Conversely, Bradley Tusk of Tusk Montgomery Philanthropies has encouraged mobile voting, stating that it can turn out more voters, and as a result, "Democracy would work a lot better." Tusk Montgomery Philanthropies helped fund the Voatz app's development.