Mac Warner Should be Open and Honest about Mobile Voting App

February 4, 2020

Questions and security concerns continue to surround Warner’s voting app
Tennant asks Warner to answer questions from election security experts

Charleston, WV- Secretary of State Mac Warner continues to push a questionable mobile voting app at the same time hiding the details of how it works and how secure it really is.

In the 2018 elections, Warner implemented a Mobile Phone Voting App that allows military and overseas citizens to use their cellphones to vote. But he has failed to be transparent and honest even saying he knows there are concerns but continues to promote it.

A few weeks ago, in the House Judiciary Committee meeting, the Secretary of State’s Chief Legal Counsel, Donald Kersey, said that Warner and the company, Voatz, that developed the app, knew there was an attempted hack on the system during the election in October of 2018.

But they hid this information from the public and lawmakers until October of 2019 when a FBI investigation began.

In addition to the attempted hack, neither Warner nor the company, has been forthright in how the application works. In news article after news article, security experts have asked for details of how that app is keeping votes secure.

A Slate article from July of 2019, asks how secure and accurate was the 2018 vote? It goes on to say, “It’s impossible to tell because the state (Warner) and the company (Voatz) aren’t sharing the basic information experts say is necessary to properly evaluate whether the blockchain voting pilot was actually a resounding success.”The article even offers a link to a 10-page report from security election experts asking simple questions about West Virginia’s voting app. Mac Warner has refused to answer those questions.

The report says the company has done a “security audit” but the company’s report and findings have not been made public. It leads to the question again of what are they hiding?

“As a military wife whose husband voted from the front lines, I know personally how paramount it is to make sure our deployed military members have access to secure ballots,” said former Secretary of State and current candidate, Natalie Tennant.

Tennant started the first ever online internet voting pilot project for deployed military and overseas voters in 2010 with overwhelming success.

“That’s the difference here, I was transparent. I conducted a first of its kind military voting project with unanimous support of the legislature and I provided lawmakers with not one, but two reports of the project’s success and the specifics of how it worked,” Tennant said. “Mac Warner has hidden details of the app and the fact that there was an attempted hack on it. And he hid it from the people of West Virginia for a year and now says he can’t talk about the investigation.”

“I’m asking Secretary Warner to answer the questions posed by election security experts in the 10-page report,” Tennant said. “It may calm some worries about the system and our voting process.”

In addition to the concern of possible hacking, there is are still questions of whether the process is even legal under the state code of West Virginia. The ballots from the mobile voting app go to the Secretary of State’s office in case there is a dispute or a request for a new ballot.

According to the Secretary’s legal counsel during committee testimony, nowhere in state code is that allowed and nowhere in other voting systems are ballots permitted to go the Secretary of State’s Office. County clerks are responsible for the handling of ballots.

“Our military members and people with disabilities who are voting at home deserve access to the ballot, but they also deserve a system that is secure and a Secretary of State that is transparent about the process,” Tennant said.

There are other viable alternatives to absentee voting at home for people with disabilities that can be used like online ballot delivery and character recognition software.

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