You have commented 338 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Government
Lax Online Security Appears to Allow Cancelling Other Voters’ Mail-in Ballots in Some States
2020-10-19
[EpochTimes] Election security in some states is so lax that people can spy on other people’s mail-in ballot process and possibly even cancel their ballots with only basic personal information easily obtained online.

The online voter portal for Washington State only requires the name and date of birth of a voter for a login. Dates of birth are a matter of public record for many people, either through social media, government and court documents, or Wikipedia pages, not to mention millions of hacked personal records available for sale on the darkweb.

Upon login, a person can view the voter’s registration information and other details, including the registered address and ballot status. The portal also allows voters to request a new ballot, which the person can fill out online, print out, and mail to the election authorities to vote. The ballot package needs to be signed and the signature would be matched by the authorities to the one they have on record.

However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk...
the page warns that "if you continue, a ballot previously mailed to you will be cancelled," suggesting that somebody can log in and cancel another person’s ballot by requesting a new one.

The office of the Washington secretary of state didn’t respond to a request for comment.

OREGON
A similar issue appears to apply to Oregon, where the voter portal also only requires a name and date of birth for a login. The portal allows the voter to fill out the ballot online, print it, and submit it to election authorities, an Oregon voter contacted by The Epoch Times confirmed. The page says the option is only available to military, overseas, or disabled voters, but there doesn’t seem to be any verification that would prevent other voters from using it and thus potentially invalidate any other ballot they were previously issued.

The office of the Oregon secretary of state didn’t respond to a request for comment. The Oregon voter portal appeared to be shut down for maintenance on Oct. 18 for several hours.

Underscoring the potency of the vulnerability, in November 2019, a laptop belonging to a medical contractor that had the personal information of more than 650,000 Oregon residents was stolen. The data included names, social security numbers, as well as "phone numbers, dates of birth and Medicaid ID numbers," The Oregonian reported.

Both Washington and Oregon hold all-mail elections, meaning ballots are automatically mailed to all registered voters before every election.

The problem with the online voter portals was first spotted by users of anonymous discussion board "Politically Incorrect" on 4chan.org. The board is known for robust open-source research as well as online pranks and offensive posts.
Posted by:trailing wife

#2  Feature, not bug.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2020-10-19 19:37  

#1  Oh well, Trump wasn't counting on Washington State anyway. The trouble comes for down ticket Republican candidates in that state.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2020-10-19 13:13  

00:00