EPIC Urges Election Commission to Protect Secret Ballot

June 22, 2020

EPIC has filed comments to the Election Assistance Commission on the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0 Requirements. EPIC urged the Commission to remove a provision allowing “recallable ballots,” which are ballots that have already been cast but can be “individually retrieved.” By their very definition, recallable ballots require linking the voter’s identity with the voter’s cast ballot. “This is too great a risk to our democracy and violates the VVSG 2.0 Principles themselves, as well as many state laws and constitutional provisions,” EPIC told the Commission. Though states are not mandated to comply with the Voting System Guidelines, the Guidelines shape the election security market. In 2016, EPIC published a report on the importance of the secret ballot, finding that all fifty states have constitutional provisions or statutes that require a secret ballot. EPIC has a long history of working to protect voter privacy and election integrity.

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