With COVID-19 dominating the national conversation, there has been growing discussion about how to reduce crowds and lines at polling places during the 2020 election cycle. One possibility is to enable voting via smartphones. However, cybersecurity experts remain incredibly cautious given security concerns.

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner announced Feb. 28 that the state will cease using the Voatz app to allow West Virginians living abroad and voters with disabilities to vote via smartphone.

The voting app Voatz has come under increased scrutiny following a Feb. 13 report from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers.

While the 2020 election cycle has been officially underway for less than a month, there have already been significant technology concerns. While the most notable tech concern was the Feb. 3 Iowa Caucus, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) raised additional concerns in a report published Feb. 13.

An apparent series of interconnected failures surrounding the use of a key vote-tallying phone app – plus delays associated with a phone-reporting backup system – derailed the reporting of the Iowa Democratic Caucus results last night, even as more states and localities are preparing to add app technologies to some aspects of their election processes.

With today’s Iowa Caucus, the long slog to the 2020 Election is officially underway. In preparation for the General Election this November, West Virginia will become the first state to allow people with disabilities to vote with their smartphones.

Denver is hopping on the app-based voting bandwagon ahead of the 2020 elections.

In Tuesday’s midterm election, a total of 144 West Virginians living abroad voted in the largest-ever blockchain-based voting pilot.