Base

While serving as the Elections Director for the West Virginia Secretary of State's Office from 2017 – 2019, I oversaw a pilot project launched to provide certain West Virginia military and overseas citizens the ability to receive and return an absentee ballot using an application on an approved mobile device. The application, which is owned and hosted by a third-party vendor, utilizes a type of Blockchain to securly store retutrned ballots until election night and provide dependable auditability. My experience with Blockchain technology, although limited to this project's management, has led me to believe that it is one of the most secure ways to store data electronically (or, at least, substantially more secure than alternative methods of absentee ballot delivery previously used in West Virginia). In the elections sphere, voters who cannot particiapte in-person face numerous hurdles to receiving, marking, and returning absentee ballots. Before 2018, West Virginia was without technology that offers immutable and auditable storage. Now, we are proud to be the first State in the Nation to pioneer a new way to provide overseas voters the opportunity to participate in our elections from abroad.