Washington (AFP)

People with disabilities in West Virginia and soldiers deployed overseas will be able to vote via their smartphones in the US presidential election, although the method raises a number of security concerns.

In 2018, soldiers from the same state had already voted on their phones, via the Voatz application, which is based on blockchain technology (distributed and encrypted database, known for its inviolability).

This year, people in West Virginia with physical disabilities will also be able to use it, and Voatz is being tested in Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Washington State.

Yet researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) released a report on Thursday that recommended "abandoning the app for now".

They explain having discovered weaknesses that could allow hackers to modify votes or to determine which candidate was chosen by such an elector.

Voatz considers this study as "full of flaws", and assures that the scientists did not use the last version of the application, which they deny.

What revive the debate between supporters of electronic voting, which allows everyone to vote, and those who fear that such systems open the door to manipulation, which could damage confidence in the accuracy of the results.

Even though internet voting has been implemented in some places, notably in Estonia, security remains a concern, especially after the vote count fiasco during the Democratic primaries in Iowa, due to a application for smartphone faulty and not sufficiently tested.

"Voting on the internet cannot be secured by any known technology," said Andrew Appel, professor of computer science at Princeton University and member of a panel of the National Academy of Sciences who released a report. against electronic voting in 2018.

A digital ballot must both guarantee the secrecy of the vote, while verifying the identity of each voter and protecting the result from any subsequent modification.

The advantage of paper bulletins "readable by humans", notes the Academy's report, is that they can be recounted and then audited.

- Blockchain -

Voatz ensures that its system is perfectly secure, in particular thanks to the blockchain.

"We use the latest technologies, facial and biometric recognition to verify the identity of voters, cryptography to produce a bulletin (...) and the blockchain for rigorous audits after the election, to ensure respect for the choice voters without needing to reveal their identities, "a company spokesperson told AFP.

The app requires a scan of an official identity document, a fingerprint taken on a separate device and a selfie to authenticate users via software that uses facial recognition.

The blockchain consists of a register where the information (cryptoactive, originally) cannot be modified without all the links in the chain being informed.

"Blockchain solves a problem that does not exist, that of securing votes already cast," said Matt Blaze, a professor at Georgetown University, specializing in cryptography, who studied electoral systems.

"But it does not solve the problem of how to know if these are the candidates who have been chosen."

According to Andrew Appel, if a digital bulletin was modified by a hacker before being counted, "the hacked bulletin would enter the blockchain".

- Participation -

electronic voting is still gaining ground, in the United States and elsewhere.

At least four US states allow certain voters to vote on an online portal, and 19 allow faxes or emails, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The NGO Verified Voting Foundation (VVF) is wary of companies that sell technology by promising to increase participation.

"It's a myth. There is almost no evidence that online voting improves voter turnout," said Barbara Simons, president of the NGO, at a conference at Georgetown University.

According to VVF, a dozen countries have experimented with one form or another of electronic voting. The system implemented by Estonia since 2005 is seen by some as the model to follow.

But France abandoned the idea in 2017 for voters living abroad because of concerns about the security of the ballot.

© 2020 AFP