Jeff Drobman Is a Candidate Advocating Online Voting

By Jeffrey H. Drobman

I have been advocating online voting for 10 years. I need to become Secretary of State to make it a reality.

I began advocating for online voting ten years ago when I attended the 35th anniversary of the birth of the Internet at UCLA. (I have attended all such UCLA commemorations, having myself been a research user/tester of the early Internet, then known as the ARPANET.) I asked many of the Internet pioneers in attendance then (especially Vint Cerf and Len Kleinrock), and several times since, "Why can't we vote over the Internet?" They didn't see any reason why not, other than the obvious security concerns. But those security concerns never deterred the builders of the Internet -- for it is a wonderful advance for society the world over.

Nor have those same security concerns deterred all the major banks from offering online banking. The banks put a lot of effort into their cybersecurity. That has enabled the banks to offer convenience for their customers while at the same time saving the banks a lot of money (not having to service customers in person). Moreover, banks don't require customers to use online banking -- they still have walk-in branches and ATMs -- but they hope customers will increase their online usage.

My vision for the state of California to offer online voting is a strong parallel: There would be an ever increasing segment of voters using online voting; use would be an option (no one forced to use it); and polling locations would continue to exist, but with added on-premises online voting options via supervised iPads and PCs.

Online voting has a long list of benefits, including these:
1. Online voter registration would increase participation (only half of eligible voters in California are now registered).
2. Online voting would provide easier and convenient access to voting, thereby --
3. Online voting would increase voter turnout.
4. Online voting would be more inclusive -- attracting the younger generation (including "millenials") who are now disengaged, but who are attached to using their smartphones for everything.
5. Online voting would enable enhancing the voting experience -- via links to more information (including candidate and issue websites)
6. Online voting would more efficiently address multi-lingual ballots (provided online)
7. Online voting would increase vote tabulation reliability & security -- by eliminating the many hands of the chain of custody of ballots (and applying strong cybersecurity measures at a central location)
8. Online voting would vastly reduce costs of running an election
9. Online voting would ensure voting rights -- voting anywhere means no contesting voters.

Voting Rights -- The time to contest voters is at registration time via a strong vetting of voter eligibility. To prevent fraud at voting time, I would apply strong voter authentication via security passwords, keys and questions. So once any voter has registered, he/she need only supply a reasonable login authentication, and would not otherwise be allowed to be arbitrarily contested (as is now being put into place in many other states). It is the arbitrary contestation of voters at the polls, with its inherent voter intimidation, that violates the Voting Rights Act. Online voting would completely eliminate that and protect voter rights.

My ultimate goal is to support "VOTE ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ON ANY DEVICE" -- but only after first making our current election systems much more secure, and improving voter vetting and authentication.

Online voting can be done; it should be done; and it shall be done. And I am the man to do it.