Nevada appears to be using an honor system to determine a voter’s eligibility for EASE, the state’s electronic voting program.
Nevada has used the “Effective Absentee System for Elections” (EASE) system to allow military and overseas voters to vote electronically for roughly the past decade. Since the 2020 election, the state has opened the EASE system to voters who are disabled or live on an Indian reservation, allowing them to vote online. But when asked how officials ensure the system is only used by eligible voters, the office of Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar could only point to each voter’s word.
Nevada’s EASE system is “an online application that seamlessly integrates voter registration and electronic ballot delivery and marking.” EASE is described as “the first entirely online application, from registration to requesting a ballot to ballot delivery to a ballot marking system using a digital/electronic signature,” according to the secretary of state’s website.
Voters who are registered with EASE can use an electronic image that is already on file with the county or state to “mark a digital image of their ballot and return their ballot submission electronically, negating the requirement of printing and signing the ballot before returning it,” according to the secretary of state’s website. Gabriel Di Chiara, the secretary of state’s chief deputy, said the program “is entirely secure,” according to Nevada Current.
But it appears the system has no safeguards in place — aside from an honor system — to ensure that EASE users are actually eligible for the system. So how does the state ensure that only eligible voters can use a system where no one ever has to see the voter vote or obtain the voter’s signature?
The Federalist inquired with the secretary of state’s office about how Nevada election officials verify that a person is eligible to use the EASE system aside from a prospective voter’s simply attesting to his eligibility.
The office first directed The Federalist to the state’s EASE web page, which does not explain how the state verifies a voter’s eligibility. Upon further inquiry, the secretary of state’s office told The Federalist: “If you are eligible to use this system based upon the list above, EASE will guide you through the following steps to register (or confirm registration status) and provide you with your actual absentee ballot to mark and return.”