Postal Service Built Mobile Voting System

In a previously Undisclosed Mobile Voting Project, the U.S. Postal Service was Experimenting with Voting Technology before 2020, even as other parts of the Government were scrambling to make Voting more Secure.

The Postal Service Built and Tested the Blockchain-based System at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in 2019, apparently without help from parts of the Government more closely Focused on Election Security.

The Testing didn’t go well. During a Mock Election on Campus, University Cybersecurity Researchers were able to Impersonate Voters, Attack the Blockchain System so Votes couldn’t be Trusted, and Flood the System with Information so it became too Overwhelmed to Function. They used other Techniques that Undermined Voters’ Privacy, and the Secrecy of the Ballot.

“Based on our research, this actually causes more problems than it solves,” Shawn M. Emery, One of the Researchers and a Cybersecurity PhD Candidate at the University. If Three Researchers can do this much Damage, I can’t imagine what a Nation State Actor, with Millions of dollars in its Budget, could do in order to Break this Election System in Multiple Ways.

The Postal Service Abandoned the Project well before the 2020 Election.

Yet USPS's Secrecy is galling Election Security Officials and Advocates. They say it could Fuel Conspiracy Theories and Degrade Public Faith in the Democratic Process. Those concerns have been Supersized since the 2020 Election, bolstered by Baseless Claims of Election Fraud by Trump and his Supporters.

“If you’re doing anything in the election space, transparency should be priority number one. There should be no guessing game around this,” Matt Masterson, a Former Senior Adviser to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said. Masterson was the Government’s Chief Liaison to State and Local Election Officials before 2020. He said he was never Aware of the Postal Service’s Plan while he was in Office.

The Postal Service was awarded a Public Patent for the Concept in August 2020, but had Not previously revealed that it Built a Prototype System or Tested it. The Colorado Researchers were made to Sign a Nondisclosure Agreement that Prevented them from Identifying the Organization that built the Prototype.

In an Academic Paper describing the Testing, they said it was Built by “a U.S. government organization, that has requested to remain unnamed [and] plays an important role in national elections.”

Delaware, New Jersey, and West Virginia, have All allowed some Voters to cast Ballots using Mobile Apps in recent years. The Programs were Limited to Voters with Disabilities that made In-Person or Mail Voting difficult and, in some cases, to Overseas Voters.

But, Reviews of the Apps used in those States, conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, turned up some Cybersecurity Problems, that were fixable.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker